How long have you spent exercising in the past week? If you said at least 150 minutes – well done! 150 minutes per week is the Australian recommendation for older adults, and if you are doing this, then you are among the 25% of older Australian’s who are meeting these guidelines.
Don’t feel bad if you are doing less – 1/3 of older adults are not even doing 30 minutes per week.
The latest research shows that as we age our physical activity especially resistance training for strength, counteracts muscle weakness and physical frailty and improves bone density. All of which will enable you to do more and improve your quality of life. Almost like turning back the clock!
So how can we encourage more participation in fitness activity for older adults?
Recently a study in the UK looked into this question to identify what older adults want from the fitness and leisure sector to encourage them to participate and increase their levels of physical activity.
The main themes to emerge from this were: accessibility, atmosphere, the importance of social interaction and programmes and class offerings designed for older adults.
The report produced nine recommendations to encourage and improve participation amongst older adults, and we took all of these on board when designing Elossa Fitness!
These recommendations are:
1. Make activity easy and accessible.
2. Focus on strength as early as possible to maintain independence.
3. Create and build an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere to foster a sense of belonging and community.
4. Make activity more social.
5. Prepare the workforce to support health needs specific to the older adult.
6. Categorise activities by ability or intensity, not by age.
7. Make communication and promotion clear to help build consumer confidence and help them make informed activity decisions.
8. Consider the changed physical and mental health needs of older adults post COVID-19.
9. Build an evidence base to understand the impact on older adults’ health.
At Elossa we are proud to say that our mission and design philosophy aligns with these recommendations.
We are looking forward to welcoming you into our Studio for a Tour soon so you can see how we measure up.