How many 51-year-olds out there can still do the splits?

Gina Payne-Scott is one, although she wasn’t always so fit.

By her mid-40s she was overweight and plagued with aches and pains; after a simple walk, she was out of breath.

“For at least ten years I was doing nothing other than the sporadic exercise class,” she said.

“I hadn’t lived on the island for that long consistently, so part of it was not knowing where to go to find the workouts I wanted. I was also a mom and had to always think, ‘How do I fit this into my schedule?’”

She found the decline especially upsetting because she’d been “uber super healthy, fit and flexible” for most of her life thanks to years of dance classes.

“I would see someone doing something like swimming out deep in the ocean and in my head I’d think, ‘I can do that’, but my body was telling me another story,” she said.

Her breaking point came after a stomach surgery four years ago.

“I was laying on a bed my family had set up for me in the living room and I remember very clearly saying, ‘I don’t want to be this person’,” she said.

“I said to my children, ‘Come Monday I’m going to start working out and get back in shape’.

“My oldest son Dallas said, ‘Statistics show 90 per cent of the population that say they’ll do something on Monday don’t follow through with it’.

“That resonated with me. So the next day I got up and started walking.”

She started walking an hour each day with friends and family members and then decided to branch out.

“I tried everything from yoga and Barre to Pilates and pump it up,” she said.

“I’m a class person as opposed to going to the gym and pumping iron.

“Over time it helped ease a lot of the pain I had before. I learnt you can build up the muscles around an injury; through exercise your body gets stronger.

“All of a sudden I had zero back pain. It completely disappeared.”

She also found she had more energy to do the things she wanted.

Dance was at the top of her list.

She’d taken lessons at her mother’s Newark, New Jersey dance studio as a child.

“When your parents are entrepreneurs and have their own business that’s what you do — spend lots of time at their office,” she said.

“I had the benefit of being around dance all the time. I took lots and lots of classes in everything from classical ballet, pointe, modern dance and jazz.

“For me it was always a lot of fun, never a chore or work, but I never danced professionally. That was an aspiration, but I think most dancers don’t end up as professionals. Being in New Jersey, the big thing for dancers was to be on Broadway, but I wasn’t interested in going on auditions and those things.”

She studied political science at college instead and found work in various aspects of the media.

She recently started her own company, Dancercise.

“Dancercise is my version of dance and exercise,” she said. “With my dance background and all my different disciplines, I put all that into a routine. We spend the first part of the class just warming up and then we start to learn little combinations. Then by the end you will learn a dance sequence.

“I’m hoping to build up clientele and create classes that are affordable.

“That’s my big thing. In Bermuda when you decide you want to get physically fit, you want to go at least three times a week and every class is $25, so that adds up after a while.”

Her body has been transformed by her more active lifestyle, Mrs Payne-Scott said. She hopes she can encourage more people to get in shape.

“I’m back to moving my body the way I want to now,” she said. “There’s nothing better than being able to feel your best.

“I tell people all the time, ‘You can just start where you are’. If you’ve never been physically fit or you’re carrying lots of extra weight on you, there are still movements you can do to get active again.

“When you’re out of shape, playing with your children or even carrying groceries from the car can be stressful, miserable or painful.

“You need to get your proper alignment and that happens through movement. You don’t have to be a gym or CrossFit person, you just have to find something that works for you.”

• Join her classes at Vasco Da Gama on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. For more information visit Facebook: Gina Payne-Scott, My Fitness Journey or call 519-8763.