AMARILLO’S GOLDEN GIRLS

Thirty-five years ago, NBC introduced its viewers to the groundbreaking sitcom “The Golden Girls,” which showcased four single, older women known for their deep friendship and wisecracking humor.

Today, in 2020, Amarillo has its own group of Golden Girls. Their friendship is as strong as that of Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia. But they’re probably working out too hard to deliver wisecracks. Building core strength is tough enough without belly laughs getting in the way.

Amarillo’s version of “The Golden Girls” isn’t a long-running TV show, but a long-running fitness class. It started around 2010 when fitness and dance instructor Suzi McKee moved to Amarillo. McKee was in her early 50s at the time. In Amarillo, she found plenty of gyms and workout facilities, but noticed that middle-aged and older women weren’t well-represented among the clientele. As she told us for a 2015 article in this magazine, many women just weren’t comfortable going to a gym. Many weren’t familiar with the equipment or didn’t know where to start. Others felt out of place while surrounded by beefy, bench-pressing men.

So McKee began creating women-only fitness programs she called “Fit Camps,” which she led at parks and local gyms until the camps’ popularity began to get out of hand. That’s when McKee opened Live Well Fit, a dedicated gym for women that turned into something of a sorority built around exercise and activity. Friendships blossomed among gym members. Women began hanging out together before and after their classes. They supported each other and encouraged each other to pursue fitness goals.

“We go through so much sharing and tears it’s almost like a counseling session,” Suzi told us back then. “I’ve seen this empower them to be the best they can be, to not let weight be the end-all for how they judge themselves.”

One of those original classes was called “Golden Girls,” which McKee designed to be a specialized cardio and strength session for women 50 and older. The class met every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11 a.m. Nearly 10 years later, several women from that first class are still exercising together every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Lana Gregory, a retired director of special education for Amarillo ISD, has been part of the group for more than three years. She spent time in Delaware after retirement, and despite living on the East Coast, had been doing online training session with McKee. So when Gregory returned to Amarillo, she knew McKee’s gym was a perfect fit. “I’d belonged to other gyms for a long time and I liked the idea that it was only other women,” says Gregory. “It can be very intimidating when you’re working out in a gym with really fit men.” She points out that men don’t intend to intimidate women, but it’s natural for a middle-aged woman using 5-pound weights to feel self-conscious next to a 25-year-old man lifting many times that amount.

Gregory was in her mid-60s at the time and became a regular in the Golden Girls class, while also occasionally trying out other group activities. She instantly loved the camaraderie she discovered. “It was small and not like a typical gym. When people come in new, like I did, you don’t know anyone,” she says. But the regulars immediately accepted her. “We built relationships. All the women and the trainers and teachers, you just get to be friends with them. We would go out to eat lunch.”

They also helped motivate her. “There are women older than me in their 70s and 80s and they’re an inspiration,” she says. “I’m like, ‘OK, I’m younger than they are but if they’re doing a plank for a minute, then I can do a plank for a minute.’”

Building those relationships coincided with a shift in the way Gregory viewed exercise altogether. Before turning 60, she had thought about exercise as a way to lose weight or look better. But as she aged, she began thinking more about mobility and longevity. “My focus changed. I have two grandchildren and want to be more active with them.” She had been hospitalized with a difficult bout of pneumonia a few years earlier and that helped cement the role exercise should play in her life. “It really scared me. I got way more serious at that point.”

In 2019, McKee began dividing her time between Amarillo and Dallas to spend more time with family, and decided to sell the gym to Morgan Neill, who had been working as an instructor at Live Well Fit. Neill renamed the gym Simply Fit but continued to focus on women’s fitness – and the Golden Girls class just kept going. From a client perspective, Gregory says the transition was extremely smooth, and McKee has remained a part of the women’s lives. She even comes back to teach the class on a regular basis.

“Every business is different, but Suzi and I are like mother and daughter,” Neill says. “I’m doing this in Suzi’s honor. It’s been a blessing.”

Much of that blessing is seeing how those who attend the Golden Girls group classes keep building more than just their muscles. “Most of our women are 55 to 75 [years old],” she says. “A lot of them have kids in college or are graduated. Their kids have their own families.” No longer caretakers for others, these women have reached a different and important stage of life. “They’ve never had the opportunity to really focus on themselves.”

When women have the opportunity to adjust their focus, the results can be transformative. Neill recently saw this when a new client entered the gym one Saturday in the early weeks of 2020. “She actually came in with her husband. She was nervous,” Neill says. But the woman committed, signing up for six months of classes. Timid at first, she gradually began breaking out of her shell, one class at a time. “Now her smile just glows. She’s the one talking to everybody in every class, constantly encouraging others. That confidence is bigger than any weight loss could be.”

Neill knows from experience. An athletic, competitive cheerleader in high school, she gained up to 60 pounds in college at the age of 19. “I had to learn the hard way it does get harder the older you get,” she says of losing that college weight and maintaining a healthy level since then. She describes the toll it takes as multifaceted. “It’s mental, emotional and physical. There are so many levels of it.”

Fitness classes helped Neill return to a healthy weight, and she has been teaching class in Amarillo since moving to the area in 2014. While Suzi McKee had been leading Golden Girls classes as a peer, Neill is much younger – and may even be close to the same age as many of her clients’ daughters. “It changed the dynamic a little bit, but I don’t think it’s been too big of a hurdle. I want my own mom and grandparents to be healthier, so I’m empathetic. I can push them and care for them,” Neill explains. “We’ve created a relationship that’s like a mother-daughter, or daughter-grandmother. It’s really broadened both sides of the horizon.”

Neill doesn’t shy away from admitting that she benefits from those friendships as much as class members benefit from her workouts. “I taught three to eight classes a week for four years before I took over [from McKee], so I’ve created relationships with so many of the women. We help each other be the healthiest versions of ourselves,” she says.

Gregory, who still attends the Golden Girls classes three times a week, intends to continue relying on her fitness community to stay strong and maintain quality of life as she gets older. Her own family reminds her why fitness should remain a high priority. “My mom is 92 and lives by herself,” she says. “She’s been active all her life. At one point, she was more active than I was. I think her longevity and health are due to her staying active.”

And not just physically active, but socially active as well. “When you get to our age and older, you can combine both of those things at the gym – especially at this gym,” she says of Simply Fit. “I’m convinced those social relationships keep people healthier and younger the older we get.”