He didn’t know it at the time, but at the age of 12, Rick Ockelmann developed a mindset and habit that would last a lifetime. He was working at a soda fountain when a few older teenage boys came in, “looking tremendous, like Arnold Schwarzenegger,” he said.
“I wanted to look like them,” Rick, 78, said with a laugh.
He put his plan in motion and used money he saved from delivering newspapers to buy a few weights. He started lifting, and six decades later, hasn’t stopped.
“Now I have to work hard just to keep what I’ve got but I love working out – I get such a high from it – and I still haven’t lost any body muscle,” Rick said.
Rick has seen his share of gyms, but found a home at Holy Name’s medically-based fitness center, HNH Fitness in Oradell, where he’s been working out since it opened in 2007. He finds the gym very clean and the staff knowledgeable and encouraging. He also likes the wide variety of free weights, elliptical machines and treadmills.
A retired Bergen County Sheriff’s Officer, Rick now fills his days with a variety of physical activities. In addition to working out at HNH Fitness four days a week, he enjoys trout fishing, pheasant hunting, golfing, and scuba diving.
Rick taught diving for over 20 years and was a PADI open water certified dive instructor. He even taught his wife how to dive. These days Rick dives mostly for fun, though sometimes he suits up when the filter in River Vale Country Club’s Golf Course pond gets clogged.
The manager of the Club, of which Rick is a member, found out about his diving experience, and approached him about the issues they were having with the pond. Rick wears an environmental dry suit and a full-face helmet to keep him safe from the bacteria in the water, and he removes the clog.
Defying aging, Rick works hard to maintain the physical strength he has enjoyed for decades.
“I just like to stay in shape so I can still do the things I love to do,” Rick said.
