Extension Get Fit program improves Arkansans’ health, strengthens social ties
June 23, 2026
By Rebekah Hall
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Fast Facts
- Extension Get Fit program active in 30 Arkansas counties
- Program designed to improve strength, flexibility, balance in older adults
- In 2025, program had approximately 800 participants statewide
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Download photos of EGF participants
LITTLE ROCK — Cathy Moseley, a member of the Extension Get Fit group in Mississippi County, said participating in the program has offered her “a new life.”
Moseley, 71, first started exercising with the extension group fitness program in 2023. She said that before beginning the program, she struggled with lung disease and nerve damage in her legs.
“I was wearing a brace on my legs and having trouble breathing,” Moseley said. “My son is a pulmonologist, and he said, ‘Why don’t you just stop everything?’ So, I stopped drinking, I stopped smoking and I started working out three days a week.
“Through Extension Get Fit, I’ve gone from severe COPD to mild COPD, and I’m not in leg braces,” Moseley said. “It’s just been a renewing of my mind, body and spirit altogether.
“It has been an amazing, miraculous change,” she said.
Extension Get Fit, or EGF, is a community-based strength training program offered by the Cooperative Extension Service, part of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. The program is targeted at midlife and older Arkansans. Classes meet for an hour at least twice a week and are hosted at a variety of public spaces, including county extension offices, public libraries, churches and community centers.
Volunteer leaders or county extension agents who have received extension training lead the classes, which incorporate research-based exercise programming designed to improve participants’ strength, balance and flexibility.
“Exercise can be dangerous, and we recognize this,” said Bryce Daniels, extension assistant professor and state extension health specialist for the Division of Agriculture. “We make sure our volunteers are trained by exercise professionals, and we have extension agents who are trainers and leaders themselves. These people have a passion for helping their community, and they participate in training every two years.”
Each class incorporates a warm-up session, circuits of strengthening exercises and a cool down activity such as walking or stretching. There is a $20 program fee, which covers an entire calendar year.
“Extension Get Fit is a great program, whether you are a novice or someone who has exercised your whole life,” Daniels said. “It’s made up of people who are striving to be healthy and age well.”
Improved health outcomes
Amber Hairston, Ashley County Extension family and consumer sciences agent, said her EGF group currently has 20 dues-paying members and meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the Crossett Public Library.
Hairston said one recruit started coming to the EGF classes after attending a presentation Hairston gave on extension’s How to Talk to Your Doctor program.
“After just a couple of months of coming to Extension Get Fit, she said her doctor was able to take her off her blood pressure medicine and told her, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep it up,’” Hairston said. “She is a huge success story. She just came in through word of mouth, and she’s been able to decrease the amount of medication she was taking.”
John Peddy, 75, is a volunteer leader of the EGF group in Crossett. After joining the group in 2019, he received his first leadership training in 2020. Peddy, a retired registered nurse, said his career in healthcare is part of what motivated him to get involved with the exercise program.
“I was just wanting to maintain a decent level of health and physical activity as I aged,” Peddy said. “I noticed there were some things I was doing, like working on a car, where I didn’t have the strength that I used to have. I noticed that in my 60s. It doesn’t get any better, but if you can prevent a severe decline, that’s good for you in the long run.”
Peddy said he sees the EGF program as being “totally beneficial” for participants.
“One of the ladies in our group is diabetic, and her sugar has been much more stable now that she’s exercising,” Peddy said. “On her last trip to the doctor, she had lost 15 pounds. It’s working for her.”
Jane Hermerding, Mississippi County Extension family and consumer sciences agent, leads the EGF program in her community. The group, which started in 2013, meets on Monday and Wednesday at 9 a.m. at Arkansas Northeastern College and has 30 participants.
Since she joined extension in June 2025, Hermerding said she has seen the health of many participants improve.
“I have one group member who has lung cancer, and this group has been very encouraging for her,” Hermerding said, noting that she returned to EGF soon after surgery.
“She would always say, ‘This is my therapy. This is how I make it through.’ She feels like, just based on her fitness level before she had the surgery, that she recovered better because of Extension Get Fit,” Hermerding said.
Community connection
For Moseley and many of her fellow EGF participants, the social element of the program provides just as many benefits as the consistent physical activity.
“I’ve met and become very close to people I would not have known otherwise, and we’re all the same,” Moseley said. “We’re all united in trying to stay healthy at our age. We’re older, and it’s not as easy to get up and go. I think it makes me accountable to someone else, and I love the group.”
“I have become more confident and less sad,” she said. “When you get older, some days you get lonely and melancholy — this has kept my mood elevated and my spirit strong.”
Peddy said socializing with fellow EGF participants is “very important to me.”
“I find them all like extended family now,” Peddy said. “I’ve been working with them for a few years, and we’ve become close. They’re all like my sisters.”
Hermerding and Hairston said the EGF program allows participants to lean on each other, expanding their support networks.
“I think that after the pandemic, we became very isolated, and this is a great, positive way for people to get together,” Hermerding said. “They see each other regularly. They encourage each other. They share their successes and things that are hard.”
“They’re a family,” Hairston said. “It’s the sweetest thing. One of our ladies had a fall and was all banged up, so we checked on her. We have a group text, where they will share what they have going on.”
Daniels said the fact that EGF groups meet in community spaces also helps members feel that they are part of a “bigger purpose overall.”
“There’s something to be said about sweating and getting your heart rate up and seeing that the person next to you is doing it, too,” Daniels said. “These groups really do bond and become a part of each other’s lives.”
‘Come as you are’
Daniels said EGF is a long-running program with a history of positive results. It began as the “StrongWomen” program in Arkansas in 2003 and later rebranded as Extension Get Fit in 2015 to reach a broader audience.
“Sometimes people want to join Extension Get Fit in their county, and it’s a group that’s been going since the early 2000s and is a well-oiled machine,” Daniels said. “It can be intimidating to break into that. But I want people to understand that this is a ‘come as you are’ exercise program — some groups may have been together for a long time, but everyone wants to see their fellow members move, be healthy and share success stories.”
Hermerding said that because the program focuses on flexibility, balance and strength, it is preparing people to age positively.
“Leading these classes is a way for me to engage and challenge myself, and I am so encouraged by seeing older individuals taking care of themselves and being so motivated to do so,” she said.
Hairston said her EGF participants have also become involved in other extension programming, helping spread the word about extension resources in the community.
“If I need volunteers for an event or program, those people from Extension Get Fit are invested in extension now as a whole,” Hairston said. “I think it builds the connection between the county and extension. Everywhere they go and talk about Extension Get Fit, they’re also talking about everything else I do. They’re great advocates.”
Contact your local county extension agent to learn about Extension Get Fit classes in your area or visit the Extension Get Fit page on the Cooperative Extension Service website for more information.
Extension Get Fit is not intended to replace the services of a healthcare provider.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. To learn more about ag and food research in Arkansas, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station at aaes.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 22 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
501-671-2061