I WAS FORTUNATE THAT I NEVER injured myself while teaching one of my fitness classes. My good fortune came about from a discussion I had with one of my earliest directors at the fitness center. When I first arrived there, many of the members thought I was the director’s brother because we were so similar in our coloring and temperament, though she was over a decade older than me. When she hired me, she explained her philosophy on teaching classes, which included how she not only paid attention to the members’ form and movement, but to own as well. Back when I started, high impact aerobics was still a thing and she told me to begin the exercise demonstrating the high impact moves, but to drop down to low impact to protect my body. It was great advice because, through the decades, I was able to maintain teaching 15 to 20 classes a week without any soreness in my joints or muscles. Though that early director retired from her position, she still maintained her training license the entire time I was working at the fitness center. She may have been the oldest trainer on the fitness floor, but she was still getting results out of each of her clients; she was and still is an inspiration to me.      WHILE I WAS TEACHING FITNESS CLASSES, I decided to go back to school to become a yoga instructor. Once I completed my courses, I introduced yoga classes into the fitness center. One of the instructors that was hired was an older person. Nothing was said about it, this was just an observation. She and I struck up a friendship since we had similar styles in our yoga practices. Looking at her, I had to say she looked like she was in her 50’s. The yoga program was an enormous success for the center, and we were able to offer several classes throughout the week. At some point, in one of my conversations with this older instructor, she told me her age. I was shocked when she said she was about to turn seventy years old. I was only shocked because she did not look it, and no one could imagine she was that age based on the yoga poses she taught in her classes. During her time at the fitness center, I grew to admire her accomplishments based on the personal stories she shared with me. It is because of her and my earliest fitness director that I felt I could have a lengthy career in fitness/yoga. They taught me age was only a number; it did not need to represent me.      THOUGH SHE DID NOT COMPLETE HER swim between Cuba and Florida decades earlier, a marathon swimmer never forgot her dream. She was determined to be the first person to complete the course, even when others said she was too old. With Annette Bening (Jerry and Marge Go Large, Death on the Nile) as Diana Nyad, Jodie Foster (Hotel Artemis, Flightplan) as Bonnie Stoll, newcomer Anne Marie Kemf as Candace, Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man, Anonymous) as John Bartlett and Eric T. Miller (Separation, Redemption in Cherry Springs) as Coach Jack Nelson; this true story was a showcase for the acting skills of Annette and Jodie. They were wonderful in their roles, staying strong and solid throughout the film. The story is incredible; but more than that, I never found myself bored while watching the scenes unfold. I would have appreciated a little more background story to the characters because at times I did not understand why people were putting up with Diana’s behavior. Regardless, this was an entertaining and inspirational movie. Even if one does not find this biographical, sport drama appealing, one cannot fault the message, to never give up on one’s dream. 

3 ¼ stars