Inspiring Fit Fella

He’s gone for a swim. A long walk is already in the bank. And when he finishes his mid-morning—and freshly picked—grapefruit, he may work in a round of golf.

This is the pace Barrie Chapman maintains during his winter vacation. Which, as it turns out, resembles his routine at home in West Vancouver, where, with little deviation, he heads to the gym five days a week—teaching one fitness class and participating in four other sessions.

Chapman, you should know, is 87 years old.

“I’ve always kept moving. You got to keep the body parts going,” he is saying the other day from Palm Desert, California. “If you want to retire and do nothing? You’ve got a problem. If you retire, do other things, do things that keep your mind active, do things that keep your body active.”

No surprise, Chapman, as a lad growing up in Vancouver, was busy, throwing himself into whatever he saw. Soccer, baseball, football, hockey. He swam competitively. “I was never outstanding as an athlete,” he says. “I was one of the regular guys, not the star.”
But he was packing something else—unbridled enthusiasm—a character trait that would serve him well through a rewarding
37-year career with the BC Telephone Company. As a senior manager in corporate communications, he distinguished himself with a decidedly innovative approach. “I was a bit of a renegade.” Among his many flashes of inspiration, he created a fitness program for BC Tel when the head office shifted from downtown Vancouver to Burnaby. That initiative had been the envy of other corporations.

He was open-minded, too. For a while, Chapman travelled around the province with legendary skier Nancy Greene, who, in partnership with BC Tel, was giving high school presentations. “She goes, ‘I run every morning. You’re coming with me. Bring your running shoes,’” he recalls. “That’s what started me running. I found it to be a good mind-cleansing thing.”

Even if knee and hip issues eventually curtailed that pursuit, Chapman didn’t gripe. “That’s the way it is,” he says. “You get older and you have to adjust to new ways of getting exercise.”

You get older and you have to adjust to new ways of getting exercise.

So, when Chapman retired in 1996—at the age of 57—his plans did not necessitate a TV Guide subscription and a La-Z-Boy recliner.
Eager to stay active, he heard about a gang called Fit Fellas. Impressed—but too young to officially join the senior men’s program—he taught the sessions, eventually becoming manager. Fit Fellas soon jumped from two classes per week to five.

Then came another wrinkle. “Some of the old guys were dropping out because they couldn’t keep up with the regular class,” explains Chapman, who decided to add a series of toned-down workouts, dubbed the Senators Program. “These guys are all in their 90s, and it keeps them involved.”

Eight classes are now scheduled every week at the West Vancouver Community Centre. Enrolment, when he arrived, was 38. Currently 170, membership is at capacity. Instructors are nine volunteers, including Chapman, who provides the training. “I love these guys,” he says of the Fit Fellas. “I look forward every morning to getting out of bed. It makes me go.”

In addition to being the handiest place to get advice—familiar faces include doctors, plumbers, accountants, ministers, engineers, electricians, lawyers, cops—gatherings serve as wonderful social opportunities. Post-sweat, most of the chaps traipse next door to the West Vancouver Seniors’ Activity Centre for cups of joe. “We sit around and solve all the world’s problems,” says Chapman. And a birthday means a celebratory round of cinnamon buns.

In addition to fostering camaraderie and enhancing fitness, Chapman has arranged a Fit Fellas fundraising campaign for the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation. Understandably, many organizations, including the municipality of West Vancouver, have recognized his contributions. “I feel proud of what I’ve done,” he says. “It feels good when guys tell me how much it means to them. Or their wives tell me.”
Even the academic world is taking notice. UBC and Simon Fraser University researchers have written papers about the upside of the unique initiative.

Feedback can also be heartrending. One gentleman, while struggling through cancer diagnoses and treatments, embraced Fit Fellas as a sanctuary. “He said to me, ‘Barrie, if it wasn’t for this program, I would’ve been dead two or three years ago,’” says Chapman, adding that his late friend, even after bouts of radiation and chemotherapy, would gamely return to the gym.

He applauds that mindset. After all, it’s one he adopted years ago.

He remembers when his father was diagnosed with a “weak heart.” The doctor’s recommendation? “Take it easy, watch TV, read—instead of getting off your ass and going for a walk,” Chapman recalls. “When I saw my dad deteriorate, I said, ‘I don’t want to be like that.

I want to keep fighting and plugging till the end.’”

He cackles. “I’ll be on my death bed, but I’ll be lifting a dumbbell with one arm.” 

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Photography: Jamie Everheart

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