Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508300030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CHRIS KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 50-year-old Winett is a local pioneer in the quest for middle-age fitness. He publishes the Master Trainer, a bi-monthly newsletter aimed at providing his middle-age constituency with information.
``The aging process is like tug-of-war - it pulls you in one direction,'' he said. ``If you pull back hard in the other direction, you can make progress. But if you stop, you get pulled back across the line.''
Stopping isn't something Winett knows much about. This year he set personal highs in the squat movement, the stiff leg deadlift, the barbell shrug, the barbell row and the strict chinning movement.
``It is important to set goals because they give you new things to improve on,'' Winett said. ``That improvement is what motivates you and keeps you going.''
Winett, who has been working out since the age of 13, frequents the gym three days a week. The Blacksburg resident opts for high intensity 50-minute training sessions.
``I do interval training sessions and on those days I really push it,'' said Winett, a professor of psychology at Virginia Tech and the director of the Center for Research in Health Behavior. ``On my four days off I take a leisurely walk. That's my entire schedule. It revolves around the principles of high intensity, infrequent and very brief training."
FREE FALLING: Robert Ramsey has been falling for half of his life.
Ramsey, 39, began skydiving 20 years ago and has not stopped. He has made more than 4,000 jumps, a feat accomplished by fewer than 300 people in the United States. Ramsey estimates that he has spent more than 48 hours free falling after plunging from planes at an altitude of 10,000 feet.
The Christiansburg resident falls for 7,500 feet, or roughly 40 seconds, before pulling the cord on his parachute. A skydiver can fall at speeds approaching 200 mph.
In 1990 and '91, Ramsey won a bronze medal in National 20-Way Sequential competition in Arizona.
The majority of Ramsey's jumps are completed at an airstrip in Burnt Chimney. Ramsey and his wife, Amy, whom he met through skydiving, make six jumps each weekend.
His wife isn't the only family member Robert Ramsey has taken the plunge with. For his father's 70th birthday the pair made a jump together.
CHURCH LEAGUE SOFTBALL: Presbyterian rolled to the Christiansburg Church League softball tournament title by defeating Main Street Baptist 25-4.
Presbyterian advanced to the finals by defeating New Life Foursquare 10-3. Regular season champion Brethren/Mennonite was eliminated in the first round by Main Street Baptist.
Anybody who has news or a story idea about recreational sports may submit it to Chris King, The Roanoke Times, 110 Peppers Ferry Road, P.O. Box 540, Christiansburg, Va., 24073 or fax 540-381-1656.
by CNB