YMCA program helps veterans get fit, feel better
TAMPA, Fla. - Most veterans will probably admit that their years in the service were probably also their most fit. But good health doesn’t have to end when they hang up their uniforms.
The Metro Tampa YMCA and James A. Haley Veterans Hospital have created a partnership to help veterans get better health for life.
Amy veteran Ronald Lester has been coming to the South Tampa YMCA since January, through the VA’s Whole Health for Life Program. It is free 12-week program to help veterans improve their overall health.
“You talk to the trainer and you tell them what your goals are,” said Lester, who spent 20 years in the Army. “Like me, it’s my left side because I had a stroke. And they help me build up my strength on the left side.”
Veterans must get a referral from a VA hospital to take part in the program.
“They get here, they’re finding a community, they’re finding the support they need,” said YMCA Healthy Living director Dawn Kita. “They’re getting the endorphins from the exercising so they’re feeling better. And they’re making improvements and seeing it.”
“When you talk to veterans who have completed 90 days, for example, they tell you how they feel—the differences—how they’re going to continue, how it’s changed their lives, how it really made them look at themselves as that individual they were thinking about when they were 18, 19, in the military,” added Addison Simmons, a community coach for James A. Haley VA’s Whole Health.
While they’ll never reclaim their youth, the veterans can certainly improve their later years through healthier living.
“I’ve got two kids and you just want to be around longer,” Lester said. “I’m 65 and I hope to be around at 90. That’s my goal.”
MORE INFO:
VA Whole Health: https://www.va.gov/wholehealth/
Tampa Metro YMCA: https://www.tampaymca.org/