It’s bleak walking down Dufferin in the winter. Rumbling dump trucks, roaring car engines and thundering mufflers. I dodge splashing slush as city buses swoop down by the sidewalk. But just beyond the asphalt-crushing construction site at Keywest Avenue, there’s an unexpected oasis.
The first time I saw the oasis was a couple of summers ago when the election card in the mail said this was the location where I vote. I never knew it existed even though I lived a five minute walk away. There was ample parking and it was located by a huge park. Inside it was like new. At the time, I just wanted to vote, and I didn’t think much of the place. It seemed like a small private club. Only later did I realize it wasn’t a private club at all. It was a City rec centre. Fairbank Memorial Community Centre.
As I said, I hadn’t thought much of the place even though I was looking for a gym at the time. I tried places like L.A. Fitness and even joined a small private gym. Both didn’t work for me as the first was catered to a young, crowded crowd, and the second was just weights with a monthly cost and trainers at an extra cost on top of that cost.
At my age, I realized that I needed a gym catered to older (but not old) folks like me. And that’s when I rediscovered Fairbank Memorial. The York-Fairbank Centre for Seniors always had, and still have, a large sign outside the rec centre. But I never looked closely because I had never thought of myself as a senior. But the good folks at Fairbank did.
The senior’s club accepts members at 55. And what a membership it is. You get the weightroom automatically. But you also get sessions with specially trained fitness instructors like Amanda. She’s the manager and she specializes in weightroom workouts for older people. People like me who drive too much and who sit at desks so long, that our bodies look like the chairs we sit on.
I explained my Tin Man condition to her, and Amanda understood immediately. She asked me some questions, lightly tested my strength and gave me three specific stretches to do to release the stiffness. Something you need to do before lifting weights.
“Go slowly. Don’t expect results right away,” she said. “It took you time to get here (Tin Man state) and it will take time to get out of it.”
She showed me one stretch to release the stiffness in my neck and shoulders and showed me which machines to use for my condition.
While she was showing me to the machines, an older man walked in. Amanda introduced us. “I never knew this place existed and now I come in all the time. I just love it,” he said with a big smile on his face.
It was almost too perfect. Like Amanda had queued a live testimonial.
But as I said, the small weight/cardio room, with its treadmill, elliptical machine, free weights, and strength and resistance machines is just the start. There’s a summer program and a winter program, all offered with instructors.
And that’s not all. If you feel like being outdoors, there’s the large grass field, and there’s even the Doce Minho café across the street for coffee and ice cream.
So, if you live near Dufferin and Rogers and think you’re too stiff, too busy, or too young to walk through those doors, think again. You will find the Fairbank Memorial Community Centre oasis right inside.
