Look Who’s Exercising Now, Sonny

The adage “older and wiser” may soon be elongated to “older and wiser and fitter” if a current trend reported by American Sports Data continues. The sports marketing consulting company looked at health club participation information from 14,684 people and found the biggest increase, by far, among people 55 and older. The Miami Herald reports that the survey found that from 1998 to 2004, the number of frequent fitness participants over age 55 climbed 33 percent, compared with 13 percent for people 35-54. The study also found that people over 55 now made up 25 percent of Americans who go to the gym regularly. And what, you ask, was the increase for people 18 to 34? It was, as the Brits say, nil.