Two years later, she's keeping that promise in part by regularly attending a fitness class at the Almaden Valley Athletic Club. The company she keeps in class is part of the growing "graying" population in America that is expected to continue its upward swing thanks to an aging "baby boomer" generation.

Hughes and the demographic legion to which she belongs are leading the way for the now-aging populace to learn how to stay fit physically and mentally through a burgeoning senior wellness industry.

Physical activity is only a part of what practitioners say is necessary for total fitness, so when Mary Ann Smith was approached by one of the owners of AVAC to create a senior wellness program she jumped at the chance.

"We not only just do classes but we also plan lunches and dinners. We wanted it to be social as well as fitness," says Smith, the senior wellness director for the club.

In addition to the physical fitness classes for seniors that range from Pilates to T'ai Chi, Smith organizes "talks" with the San Jose Fire Department, for example. There seniors can learn things such as "how not to trip and fall," she says. She has also organized discussions on elder abuse and how to have a healthy heart.

But the activities aren't always so serious, she says.

She also organizes group lunches, dinners, lectures, trips, trail walks, birthday celebrations and the most recent addition to the program line-up is a classic movie day.

The first official classic movie day--which featured Random Harvest starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson--came about as do many of the activities she organizes, from a suggestion from one of the members. When the member told Smith about the movie they decided to get a small group together to watch it. Then they watched another movie.

"Then we said, 'Why don't we do this at the club?' We thought it would be nice to involve more people," Smith says.

She says more and more people are getting involved in the activities and exercise classes at the club where the older adult category count is upwards of 600 members. The growth of the Almaden Senior Program, started just over five years ago, surpassed its expectations more than doubling in membership since its inception.

Judith Brynda teaches a body conditioning class--just one of the Almaden Senior Program classes--and says she had 32 new registrants sign up for the new semester, bringing the total to 90, though she says they don't all attend every session.

Brynda says older adults sometimes shy away from joining exercise classes because they don't want the pressure of commitment, so she says she talks to students about coming to class only when they feel like it.

"You're not competing for anything. You're not getting a grade," she says.

Brynda's and Smith's classes do a little bit of everything, they say.

"It's a work out from top to toe," Brynda says.

There is quiet stretching and bending, something to get the heart rate up, a little bit of work with light weights and a facial of sorts, she says.

"We exercise our eyes," Brynda says demonstrating a roll up and around with her eyes followed by a couple of quick face scrunches.

"And we stick out our tongues at our friends," she adds.

Smith's class works on the same concept of blending four elements: strength, balance, stretching and endurance. When she was working on the format she says a recurring theme helped name the class: "Just Enough."

"We should have just enough of a warm up, just enough aerobics, just enough endurance and just enough stretching," she says.

"We didn't really know what to call the class but the words kept coming up."

A number of dance elements are incorporated into the aerobic routine and she keeps the class moving on beat with the music.

"Grapevine," she shouts from the front of the room where she is demonstrating in front of a mirror with about 35 seniors following her lead.

"Walk forward knee," she says.

It is one of the favorite parts of the class, students say.

"I love the music and the dancing," says June Estrada, who joined the class three months ago but has been a member of AVAC for 20 years.

Smith and Brynda both stress in their classes that the students should only do what their bodies tell them they can.

"I've popped my ligaments in each knee," Brynda says. "I tell my students that so they know they don't have to do something if they don't think they can."

But senior wellness doesn't end with only exercising the body, Smith and Brynda agree.

Brynda says she exercises her mind, too, by attending a writing class, doing crossword puzzles and word searches.

The journaling workshop offered at AVAC gives seniors a creative outlet, Smith says.

"The class we have is one that brings people together to write about things that have happened in their life so they can get over things or wax nostalgic. We do it in a variety of methods of writing."