Articles
The Journal on Active Aging brings articles of value to professionals dedicated to older-adult quality of life. Content sweeps across the active-aging landscape to focus on education and practice. Find articles of interest by searching the article archives in three ways: Enter a keyword in the articles search bar; click on search by topic; or type a keyword or phrase in the general search bar at the top of the page.
Add chairs to your list of valuable equipment by Cammy Dennis
Aging actively is critical to maintaining function, independence and quality of life. As instructors and program facilitators, our challenge is to provide a workout that offers the appropriate exercise prescription for a group of people that usually ranges drastically in physical capabilities.
The chair is a wonderful way to meet this challenge. It is a versatile tool that can be incorporated into exercise classes in many ways, just as you incorporate different types of free weights and exercise balls.
Physical wellness
FIT Activity IN! by Mary Sanders, PhD, FACSM
Physical activity slows physiological changes associated with aging, improves exercise capacity, optimizes healthy weight and body composition, promotes psychological and cognitive well-being, helps to manage chronic diseases, reduces the risk of disability and increases longevity (ACSM, 2010). Positive improvements can occur at any age.
morePhysical wellness
FIT Activity IN! by Mary Sanders, PhD, FACSM
Physical activity slows physiological changes associated with aging, improves exercise capacity, optimizes healthy weight and body composition, promotes psychological and cognitive well-being, helps to manage chronic diseases, reduces the risk of disability and increases longevity (ACSM, 2010). Positive improvements can occur at any age.
moreHealth promotion
Creative tools for developing cognitive fitness by Martha Grove Hipskind, MSPH
Demographic trends and projections indicate that the likelihood of our living to age 100 is increasing exponentially. And yet, when you ask a group of older adults whether they look forward to such longevity, most condition their responses with one of two immediate qualifiers: “IF I have my health” or “IF I have my mind.”
Having spent 10 years working directly with individual families struggling to understand their loved ones’ dementia, while also speaking and training on topics related to aging, I can say with confidence that fear of losing our memory runs deep. Memory change with age is an area we know little about, and most people are often afraid to ask about it.
Cognitive health
Exercise modifications for older adults by Gay Elliott
“The less you do, the worse you feel, and the less you get out of life,” states Michael Gordon, a physician and professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. Exercise—especially for the older adult—is more about quality of life, remaining independent and feeling better than it is about having a flat stomach or the abdominal ‘six pack.’
How, then, do we as practitioners conduct our group-exercise or personal training sessions to make each and every older adult feel included, successful and safe? How do we as program directors insure that we have matched the right trainer or instructor with the clients? Do we know the modifications to equipment that we can make? Have we adjusted the program itself to fit the older client?
Exercise
Exploring the "so what" of function by Pamela E. Toto, MS, OTR/L
When you hear the word “function,” what image comes to mind?
Is it a runner on a treadmill or a bodybuilder lifting weights? Is it an image of increased range of motion in the shoulder joint or independence for a sit-to-stand transfer? Is it the ability of a person to climb out of the bathtub, plant a garden or change the curtains in the living room?
