In-home workouts making elderly fitter.

Bill and Ruth Crawford of Brookline, Mass., noticed benefits big and small -- from the disappearance of Bill's chronic back pain to the fact that they both are sleeping better - since they started working out regularly. Meanwhile, Nancy Murphy of Boston couldn't believe how quickly she started seeing results after starting a program of pumping iron and aerobic exercises about the same time.

However, you won't find any of them hanging out at the local gym, where, despite their enthusiasm for exercise, Murphy and the Crawfords probably would stick out like sore thumbs amid all the Spandex and the Stairmasters. Bill Crawford is 85. His wife, Ruth, is 75. Nancy Murphy is 72. All three have gotten into the habit of working out regularly -- an activity more commonly associated with people young enough to be their grandchildren -- in the comfort of their own homes. They have been volunteers in a study conducted by Tufts University, Boston, to find out what happens when people make an active effort to do something about the loss of strength and fitness that comes with growing older.

"These three individuals are very typical of what we're seeing in this program. They're getting stronger; they're starting to participate more in activities; they have better balance; and over all they feel much more youthful and energetic," notes Miriam Nelson, an exercise physiologist at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts.

A Tufts exercise expert visited the Crawford home; taught them...