Dozens of traditional Aymara grandmothers ease many of the aches and pains of aging by practicing a sport that is decidedly untraditional in Bolivia — team handball.

The women, some of them great-grandmothers, arrive with their tennis shoes every Wednesday at a covered court in El Alto, an impoverished city near the capital of La Paz.

Known in the Aymara language as "awichas," or grandmothers, the women pull sports jerseys over their long-sleeved blouses and ruffled skirts, then perform warm-up exercises while singing a childhood song.

"There are days my knees hurt from rheumatism, but when I play it goes away," said 77-year-old Rosa Lima, who first began doing simple exercises eight years ago, then later took up team handball. She lives alone and looks forward to playing with her friends every week.

Team handball is an Olympic sport in which two teams of pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the other's goal. The games the grandmothers participate in are part of a program that El Alto sponsors to encourage older people to stay healthy by remaining active.

About 1,000 older people practice sports, play Andean music and recall their younger years through the program that also provides free medical care to around 10,000 participants. The program so far has spread to six of El Alto's 14 districts.

"This helps us a lot, says Juana Poma, an 84-year-old great-grandmother of five. "Look, I'm full of life, but I'm also thinner."

View the Bolivia Grandmothers' Handball collection

Text from AP news story, AP PHOTOS: Bolivian Grandmothers Stay Fit With Handball.

Spotlight is the blog of AP Images, the world’s largest collection of historical and contemporary photos. AP Images provides instant access to AP’s iconic photos and adds new content every minute of every day from every corner of the world, making it an essential source of photos and graphics for professional image buyers and commercial customers.  Whether your needs are for editorial, commercial, or personal use, AP Images has the content and the expert sales team to fulfill your image requirements. Visit apimages.com to learn more. 

Written content on this site is not created by the editorial department of AP, unless otherwise noted. 

AP Images on Twitter | AP Images on Facebook | AP Images on Google+