Lorine Gray of Tinley Park cheats a little when she exercises at the Riviera Country Club in Orland Park.

She stops periodically to sit down and rest during her mile and a half walk around the track. She grasps the handrails and walks down the wide steps of the swimming pool instead of diving right in. She also uses the high pulley machine, a weight-training machine, but said it isn't really like lifting weights because all she does is sit on a chair and stretch her arms.

As a high school cheerleader and member of the track team, Annette Pelton of Channahon made weight training a permanent part of her life. Now 20 and a student at Joliet Junior College, she, like her mother and many other weight lifters, alternates the weight- raining with aerobics because it increases her energy level.