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.
Topic- Program design
How to progress aerobic intensity in a chair class by Phyllis Kenworthy and Linda Ralston
Elder individuals are drawn to chair fitness for many reasons. They know they don’t have the strength, stamina or quickness to participate in low-impact aerobics, yet they also know that those weaknesses, if not attended to, will contribute to dependency and loss of normal functions.
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Meditation and mindfulness: designing wellness programs for the mind, body and spirit by Jim Concotelli, PhD, MSW
Medical research continually reminds us of the many health benefits of exercise and shows us that physical activity can preserve function and enhance independence. But few of us realize that the wellness activities people choose can produce a host of unexpected benefits.
As millions of mature adults take a positive and active approach to their personal health, the most successful are those who adopt a whole-person wellness model, addressing the needs of the body, mind and spirit. Two practices that offer such multidimensional wellness benefits are meditation and mindfulness. By choosing mindfulness and integrating meditation into their lives, older adults can discover even greater health and vitality, as well as deeper spiritual awareness.
Program design
Gardening With the Elderly By Jack Kerrigan, PhD
Many changes occur as a person ages. These changes impact a person’s physical, emotional and cognitive abilities as well as social roles. Gardening can be used in a therapeutic way to address these issues and improve the elderly person’s physical and emotional conditions, cognitive ability and social interactions. However, many of the changes involved in aging must be addressed by modifications in gardening practices, situations and tools.
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Qi Gong and Tai Chi: promoting practices that promote healthy aging by Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, PhD, Lynn Beattie, MHA, Rita Chow, EdD, James Firman, EdD, Roger Jahnke, OMD, Chae-Hee Park, MS, Karl Rosen
In the final decades of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, health promotion emerged as a complement to conventional medical interventions. Some examples of these innovations include disease risk management, self-care, reduction of negative drug interactions, falls and injury prevention, stress management, holistic healthcare, and mind-body medicine. An integral part of this healthcare evolution has been the growing importance of various forms of exercise modalities originating from Asia, such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi.
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The energy cost of water fitness by Mary E. Sanders
The natural resistance and buoyancy of water make it a safe, effective exercise environment in which to build muscular endurance and expend kilocalories (kcal) for energy. By minimizing the pounding impact of gravity against the joints, water provides a more comfortable setting for vigorous exercise. This makes the aquatic workout an excellent option for many older adults, including those focused on weight loss or maintenance.
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Power training and aging: a practical approach by Joseph F. Signorile, Ph.D.
What is power? Although often used synonymously, the terms strength and power describe different things. Strength refers to the capacity of a muscle or body segment to produce force, while power is a measure of the rate at which that force can be developed. Effectively, power means force times velocity.
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