Mark Bryant, IFA Certified
National Fitness Professional

ExFlexFitness

Websites:

• http://www.exflex.com

In March 2007, Mark Bryant was named the National Enhance Fitness Instructor of the Year. Mark has over 25 years of experience in the fitness industry. He is a personal trainer and senior fitness instructor certified by the International Fitness Association (IFA), ExpertRating, and the Enhance Fitness Program.

05/31/2007 South Seattle seniors fitness instructor wins national award
By Rick Levin

Enhance Fitness teacher Mark Bryant, shown leading a stretching class last week at the South Seattle Senior Center, uses humor, respect to encourage health in South End seniors. Bryant has been a practicing physical therapist for the past 25 years. Photo: BRADLEY ENGHAUS
RAINIER VALLEY - The folks who form an a human circle around physical trainer Mark Bryant during a Friday morning workout session at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center are, to a person, smiling. Many of them laugh. Each of them has his or her eyes glued to their instructor, who is a whirlwind of constant movement. And as he bounces around inside the circle offering advice and cracking jokes, Bryant-recently named Enhance Fitness Instructor of the Year for the whole United States-keeps a running tally on each of his students, even those not present.

"What happened to Betty today?" Bryant asks one of the women in his class.

"Oh, she's okay," the woman responds as she reaches her hands into the air according to Bryant's workout routine. "She had an appointment," she adds.

"Oh, okay," Bryant says without missing a beat. Then, addressing the whole group with a broad grin on his face: "Reach it out! Press it up! Okay, back to the middle..."

Since he began leading senior classes at the center some three years ago, Bryant, 48, has built a solid core of devoted students, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s. He teaches five days a week; his classes are split between standing routines, and programs for those who sit in a chair while working out.

Bryant has been a practicing physical therapist for 25 years, and along with his regular gig at the senior center he teaches kickboxing and is a physical trainer at another studio downtown. A student of Kung Fu since he was 11, Bryant has also taught courses in self-defense. Most of his classes are for open to all age groups.

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It is his work with older adults, however, that seems to hold a special place in his heart.

According to Bryant, it is his 73-year-old mother living in Georgia who provides the greatest source of inspiration for his work at the center. "I have a vision of my own mom," he says of his teaching methods. "That's how passionate I am about teaching fitness."

That passion is a two-way street, and is reflected in the appreciative words of Bryant's students. "He makes exercise so fun," says Marie Donahue, a regular attendee of morning senior workouts. "We laugh all the time. And he likes old people," she adds with a smile. "He just treats us so nice."

Nancy Burns, another longtime student, said she had been suffering from chronic leg pain, for which her doctor prescribed a weekly routine of walking. The classes have helped immensely, she says, though she admits it's up to her to keep at it. On this front, it is Bryant's enthusiasm and dedication to improving seniors' health that keeps her coming back, Burns insisted. "I make an effort," she says, adding that, in the end, it is Bryant's humor and upbeat attitude that combines busting a gut with breaking a sweat. "You look forward to exercising with these people. We're getting our 'health laugh' for the day."

The center's new director, Mark Williams, says there is something rare and special in Bryant's demeanor that encourages his seniors constantly to give their best effort. "He makes them get to the point where they probably haven't been before," says Williams, who points out that Bryant's nomination for the Enhance award drew overwhelming support from his students. "They were so proud of him," he says. "There was just an abundance of letters," many of which praised the instructor for his ability to "integrate humor, to encourage and not belittle" the people in his classes.

In fact, it is Bryant's special attitude toward his elderly students-some of whom have been on the planet nearly a half century longer than their instructor-that receives the most mention when folks talk about his teaching technique. "It's very rare when you find someone who is younger who is so engaging with older adults," Williams says. He jokes that Bryant has sort of been informally adopted by those very people whose health and well-being he watches out for. "He'll tell you he's got many fathers and many mothers he's go to answer to," Williams says with a laugh.

Bryant says it's crucial that he helps his students understand that "just because they're seniors, it's not the end of the world... there are things they can still do." To instill in his classes this sense of possibility, Bryant focuses on giving each student a strong sense of his or her own individuality-self-reliance as a form of empowerment. "My whole reason to teach senior fitness is to teach them to help themselves," he explains. "The more freedom I give them, the more they keep coming back."

Knowledge-or, more specifically, self-awareness-is another form of empowerment. Many of Bryant's students expressed gratitude for his insistence on telling people not only how to exercise, but also the ways particular routines affect the body-how an exercise works, what, literally, it "works out," and why it's important. "If I say do a back exercise," Bryant says, "you're going to know about your back."

Such physical education encourages a strong curiosity about one's body, he adds, which builds a sense of confidence when working out. Not only that, but knowing what's going on in your body is a good way of preventing injuries as well as figuring out more quickly what is happening when an injury occurs.

"It's a really, really important deal," Bryant says of teaching physical self-awareness. "Anybody can come in here and give orders. What really got their attention about me was the knowledge I poured out," he adds, commenting on how his students at first reacted to such an uncommon (unfortunately, some might say) way of teaching physical education.

He says too many people don't know how to relate to seniors, often treating them in a condescending or patronizing manner, and acting as though they are fragile as fine china. Bryant says this is a mistake; in his classes, granting any physical limitations, his elderly students are treated like the adults they are-with humor and honesty and respect for their individuality. "You don't baby seniors," he says. "You don't kill them," he adds, laughing, "but you don't baby them."

Bryant's classes are part of the national Enhance Fitness program, an organization that specializes in creating fitness methods and routines for older adults. Enhance is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. To add to Bryant's honor, this is the inaugural year of the organization's national award, which was announced on March 29. Students and co-workers wrote letters of recommendation supporting Bryant for the award.

Natalya Brusilovsky, projects coordinator at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center, perhaps spoke for all of Bryant's students when she described students' experiences in Bryant's classes.

"They are constantly talking, laughing and exploring cultural differences, similarities and nuances in an extremely educational, fun, respectful and, most importantly, meaningful way."

Southeast Seattle Senior Center is at 4655 S. Holly St. For more information about Bryant's classes or the center in general, visit www.seniorservices.org or call 722-2768. For further information about the Enhance Fitness program, visit the Web site at www.projectenhance.org.

Staff writer Rick Levin may be reached via mageditor@nwlink.com.

I would like to find some people who would be Interested in learning anatomy and basic exercises too. So, if you never knew anatomy before and really wanted to learn it now, contact me and I will set up a meeting time at my place for teaching. A group would be great. If this is what you really want, then, lets have fun and get ready to learn. Thanks

Mark has worked with dozens of men and women of all ages and skill levels, including those with physical limitations. Because of his personal commitment to helping his clients reach their fitness goals, he created the ExFlex Plan. This program teaches both advanced lifters and beginners to use proper form and technique while flexing specific muscle groups to achieve better results.

Mark has been publicized in Powerlifting USA, The Filipino American Herald, and The Beacon Hill News South District Journal. He holds certifications from the American Heart Association in CPR and Basic First Aid (BFA).