LAKE JACKSON, Texas – Ever find yourself needing a little extra motivation to get that workout in?
Here’s 105 years' worth.
Marian DeBoer was born Oct. 23, 1911, and at a relatively new age of 105 her workout routine is going strong.
“She doesn’t get out very much but she always comes to class at Family Fitness [in Lake Jackson],” said daughter and caretaker Karen Potts. “Who could have guessed. You just don’t expect 105. We’ve been blessed.”
“I go to my exercise class twice, twice a week,” DeBoer said.
Potts believes the grit that keeps her mom going was formed during her childhood.
“Her life wasn’t always easy. Her father passed away when she was 10, her mother did not have much of an education,” Potts said.
Potts believes her love for staying active comes from her days of dancing.
“Well I took, I took lessons in both ballet and tap and ballroom dancing. When my husband was alive we belonged to a dance club,” DeBoer said.
“She can do squats, she can do lunges, all the upper body work, chest presses, pushups … every foot movement that I do she watches and she can mimic that,” Crystal Lezak, program director at Family Fitness, said in describing DeBoer's regimen. “She inspires every lady in there, including myself.”
In fact, she has become so close with the members and staff of the gym that for the last four or five years they’ve thrown a birthday celebration for her.
Most people are amazed by DeBoer’s health but ask her what the secret is and she has a pretty modest answer: “good genes.”