SENIOR HEALTH
Workouts help keep Friendswood veteran young at heart
World War II veteran is still pumping iron at 101.
Leonard “Pater” Johnson’s motto is “Keep movin’.”
At 101 years old, he puts that phrase to use in everything he does — from cutting a rug on the dance floor and learning Spanish at a local community college to pumping iron twice a week at Ageless Muscle fitness center.
Johnson started working out at the Friendswood gym a month prior to the COVID-19 shutdown. There were a few things around the house and outdoors that he wasn’t able to do anymore, so the exercise was meant to make up for that.
“One of the main things (that keeps me motivated) is I bought that 5 acres out there where I live; I’ve been out there over 40 years and I do it all myself,” Johnson said. “Do everything, build the barns, whatever needed to be done. So every weekend, it was nothing but work.”
He was able to make it to the gym during the pandemic because the gym’s owner, kinesiologist and orthopedist David Tepera, closed the gym to everyone but Johnson and cleaned extensively.
Tepera said the gym has become essential for Johnson, as the two go through a 45-minute fullbody workout to work on Johnson’s range of motion and overall health. Johnson has always been fit and active, says his granddaughter, Gina Johnson, who lives next door to him.
“He can’t really do as much as he used to like to do, and he doesn’t like the idea of getting old,” she said. “He doesn’t think he’s old now. But he doesn’t want to get old and not be able to do things.”
Johnson is a World War II veteran. Born in 1918, he grew up in Shreveport, La., before he was drafted into the Army. He trained soldiers as a sergeant at a boot camp in San Antonio and served on the SS Woodbridge Victory.
“During that time … he was entertaining our POWs — he’d sing, dance and tell jokes,” Tepera said. “He can play the organ, he can play music, he can dance, he can sing, and he’s one of the best joke tellers I have ever met.”
Johnson moved to the Houston area in 1946 to be with his wife. He also started a valve company, which is now owned by his son.
For Tepera, Johnson has been a welcome addition to his client roster.
“(It’s) a treat for me to pick his brain and hear about the way the world was and hear it live,” Tepera said. “To live through so much, and he’s got the best jokes in the world, too. We’re good buddies and becoming good friends.”
Those who know Johnson say he’s as witty and spry as ever — especially during workouts, when he often counts his reps in Spanish to help build two skills at once.
“It’s just amazing the change in him,” his granddaughter said. “He was very active before (the gym); you can just see — he stands up straighter, it’s given him new life and he’s getting younger, he keeps getting younger instead of aging.”
Johnson stays active at home by practicing his dance moves. He has a 40-foot-long dance room in his house, where he’s hosted 28 dance events.
“(People would) come there, they’d bring a casserole and we’d go in there, I’d play the organ, we’d sing, we’d eat and then we’d dance. We had some good times,” Johnson said. “We did the fox-trot, and the waltz, and the rumba and the cha-cha — you know, all that good stuff.”
While COVID-19 has changed many parts of his life, Johnson’s granddaughter said he’s treated the pandemic as “another speed bump in the road.” She works in a hospital, so she can’t touch or hug her grandfather, and the first month of the pandemic she could only see him through his front door.
“He goes ‘Well, it’s like when the world went to war, and you just have to buckle down and it becomes a new normal, and then you make adjustments as you see fit,’ ” she said. “It teaches you to enjoy life, to take every day as a new day, to never give up or never stop learning.”
For those who aspire to be as mobile as he is once they reach 101, Johnson has one piece of advice:
“You just got to keep moving. Stay busy,” Johnson said. “Don’t worry about what the job (is). Just haul over and get into it; do it.”