How an 81-Year-Old Fitness Instructor Is Redefining Healthy Aging

Dr. Marilyn LoPresti is a lifelong educator, martial artist, business owner, and breast cancer survivor who belies the stereotypes about aging.  She believes the secret to healthy aging isn’t avoiding life’s challenges, it’s learning how to get back up.

Most people wouldn’t expect to sign up for a fitness class and discover the instructor is an 81-year-old woman. But that’s because they haven’t met Dr. Marilyn LoPresti.

Dr. LoPresti is an octogenarian who shatters the typical stereotypes about aging.

The owner of North Fork Bodies in Motion, she runs low-impact aerobics, strength training, Tai Chi and Qigong classes several mornings each week on Long Island’s North Fork.

A martial artist, breast cancer survivor, and lifelong educator, she lives an active, meaningful and engaged life.  And she teaches others to live the same way.

Healthy Aging Starts with Strength and Purpose

Dr. LoPresti started her business, 11 years ago at age 70.  Her mission:  to help older adults “live and age with vitality and joy.”

The classes she teaches are an hour long. Her students are mostly in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Most, but not all, are women. Many are regulars who have not only benefited from Dr. LoPresti’s training but have also formed lasting friendships with other class members.

The skills Dr. LoPresti teaches vary somewhat depending on which class she’s teaching.  But all her classes are influenced by her martial arts training and include guidance in posture, breathing, balance, coordination and body awareness.

Fun is an integral part of the classes she leads, too.  Low impact aerobics classes are done to music that she carefully chooses to coordinate with the rhythm of the workouts.

Breathing techniques are an important part of her classes. “Breathing is central to both tai chi and qigong,” she explains. Tai chi and qigong “help people move more mindfully while improving stability and confidence.” That’s one reason doctors frequently recommend tai chi for older adults concerned about falling.

“Balance isn’t magic,” Dr. LoPresti emphasizes. “It isn’t a secret. You have to practice. You have to build your leg muscles. Improvement comes from consistent practice, not simply attending a class.”

How Attitude Can Influence Healthy Aging

Dr. LoPresti knows first-hand that life and aging bring challenges.  Her philosophy: “If you’re knocked down, you get back up.”

That’s literally what she did this Spring (2026) after she fell into a metal bench near where she teaches. A bystander urged her to cancel class.

Dr. LoPresti didn’t realize that she’d broken three ribs. So, instead of canceling class, she went inside, gathered herself, and taught the hour-long aerobics class. She visited a doctor later that evening and discovered the full extent of her injury.

Instead of taking weeks off to heal, she canceled only one class after the fall. She used a microphone and taught from a seated position until her ribs healed enough to lead her classes in the normal way.

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Breast Cancer Survivor

In the scheme of things, the broken ribs were a minor annoyance compared to past illness and tragedy in her life. Her keep-going attitude got her through past difficulties in life, too.

She’s survived breast cancer for nearly four decades, enduring multiple recurrences, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Just last year she finished a 10-year chemotherapy drug regimen.

But she refused to let illness define her. “”In between some of those bouts,” she recalls, “I trained for my black belt because I wasn’t going to give that up.”

Dr.  LoPresti discovered martial arts many years ago after she and her sister, Joan Caccioppoli, took a self-defense course for women. At the self-defense class, they noticed martial arts belts on display. They decided to try it, loved it and kept training.

Caccioppoli, who has undergone major spinal surgery involving 30 rods and hundreds of screws, continued training alongside her.

Both now hold second degree black belts. And both were invited to China, where they became the first women to perform at the famed Shaolin Temple before the Grand Abbot.

Family Tragedy and Heartbreak

Battling breast cancer wasn’t the only thing that Dr. LoPresti endured. In the years before she started her business, she says she “went through one of the most difficult periods of my life.”

Both of her parents passed away, and then her husband of nearly 50 years died, too.

The grief, she says, was overwhelming.

A year later, while recovering from breast cancer surgery, LoPresti and her sister escaped the New York winter by renting a condo in Florida. There was just one problem: the unit was on the third floor—and there was no elevator.

With a small Yorkshire terrier to walk several times a day, groceries to carry, and stairs to climb, she had to tackle those steps over and over again. Instead of wearing her down, the daily routine made her stronger.

“Maybe I should do something with all the training I’ve had my whole life,” she remembers thinking.

Turning a Business Idea into a Business

That realization became the turning point.

Rather than slowing down, Dr. LoPresti, who has a PhD in Administration, tapped into her organizational background to lay out the plans to start a business. She spent the next year gathering her certifications and earning new ones. She became a master trainer in low-impact aerobics, earned advanced Tai Chi instructor credentials, and completed additional training in functional fitness for older adults.

She began teaching wherever people would have her—libraries, town recreation centers, and community venues, sometimes changing outfits several times a day as she moved from aerobics classes to Tai Chi instruction.

As demand grew, she took the next step: forming her own LLC so she could manage her own schedule, registrations, and classes. That business eventually became North Fork Bodies in Motion, where she continues helping older adults improve their strength, balance, confidence, and quality of life.

In person classes are held at North Fork Cheer in Cutchogue, N.Y.  The facility, which provides beginner level through competitive cheerleading training, has a low-impact floor, making it an ideal location for Dr. LoPresti to hold her classes. In addition, she offers one-to-one and virtual coaching. She’s also looking into expanding her business to serve corporate clients who want to offer fitness and vitality training to their employees.

Is It Ever Too Late to Exercise?

People often think fitness classes are for younger adults, or those who have been active all their lives. But as Dr. LoPresti emphasizes, “It’s never too late to start.”   

Building strength helps older adults stay strong. Improved muscle strength can help them recover faster after surgery. She has students who have returned to classes within months after joint replacements and surgery for broken bones.

Dr. LoPresti’s Advice for Healthy Aging

If there’s one lesson Dr. LoPresti hopes people take away from her story, it’s that growing older doesn’t automatically mean growing weaker.

There will be setbacks.

There will be illnesses.

There will be injuries.

But those events don’t have to define the rest of your life.

Strength, resilience, curiosity and purpose can continue to grow well into our later years.

At 81, Dr. Marilyn LoPresti isn’t simply teaching tai chi.

She’s demonstrating that one of the most powerful muscles we possess is the determination to keep moving forward.

Note: More information about Dr. LoPresti and the classes she offers is available on her website. She can be reached through the site’s contact form.

Photo source: Dr. LoPresti

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