Guest writer and journalist Ann Pilmer Imrie (also a client and much regarded member of our Super Senior Ladies Group)

As you get older, stuff happens to your body.
That familiar set of arms, legs and joints starts to betray you.
Those fingers can’t open a jar, a wine bottle or anything childproof.
Kitchen scissors and pointy knives or a strong-fingered relative are your new best friends.
You might trip over a step, a crack in the footpath, the dog, your own feet or nothing at all.
You feel yourself falling, falling and there’s nothing you can do. 
It’s not the fall that matters. It’s how you land and where.
If you’re lucky you might just bruise your pride, arm, bum or chin.
If you’re really unlucky, like me, you break something.
A crash down a set of stairs about 18 months ago resulted in a broken wrist.
It’s not until you can’t use it that you realise how necessary a wrist is.
For a start it’s attached to your hand which means you can’t easily use that.
It’s hellish trying to tie shoes, do up your bra, drive or even wield a knife and fork.
But being fit can help.
It may not stop it happening but it can help you move and heal.
I’m part of a group of ‘older’ women (definitely not ‘elderly’) who exercise weekly through ALTA’s Super Senior’s classes.
In hourly classes on a Tuesday morning with our supple and patient trainer, Estelle, or the equally tolerant JC, we do a circuit and floor workout.
(And for some of us, getting on and off the floor is a workout in itself).
We bounce balls on one leg, mount the exercise bike, treadmill, rowing machine, stretch and strengthen arms, legs, fingers and core.
And we talk – and we laugh – mostly to the background music of Abba.
But you certainly notice the difference when you walk up a hill, climb stairs or even drop something in a hard-to-get-to spot.
They all seem easier, bearing out the old move it or lose it adage.
Exercise also helps your mood and outlook.
If you feel fitter, you move more, ache less and you’re more positive about yourself.
I thoroughly recommend it.