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- Exercise
SOLE-ful awareness: Incorporating barefoot training into active-aging protocols by Lawrence Biscontini, MA
Lifestyles today include more time spent sitting, and people often ignore the very muscles intended to carry them through their lives--their foot muscles. The feet are the body's foundation. Healthy feet are important to proper gait and mobility, while foot problems have been linked to falls. In fact, fear of falling is consistently reported by older adults. This fear results in many individuals limiting their activities. Active-aging fitness professionals combine current research with popular activities to provide participants with the most functional approaches. Barefoot training is one such approach. Classes that regularly encourage barefoot training are offered for active older adults with the goal of improving foot stability and mobility. Some simple skills and drills that incorporate these training activities might be the right step for those who are ready to challenge themselves. By teaching and guiding participants on how to exercise their feet, professionals can help individuals take care of their feet--preserving "foot fitness" and function--so their feet can take care of them as they age.
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Health matters to older adults: Recommendations, considerations and advice by Mary E. Sanders, PhD, FACSM, and James A. Peterson, PhD, FACSM
Human aging, the process of growing up and growing older, refers to the physiological changes that individuals experience over the course of their lifespan. Why these inevitable changes occur has seemingly been debated since time eternal. Currently, more than 300 theories attempt to identify why a person's cells, tissues and organs don't last forever. Each of these efforts tries to explain why the fundamental structures of a cell decline over time. Arguably, however, more important than ascertaining why human cells don't last forever are how they decline and what can be done to slow the process. With regard to "how" cells age, no consensus exists, even though a number of theories have attempted to address this matter. One area in which a noteworthy level of agreement can be found is the issue of whether something can be done to impede the pace of the physiological decline typically associated with aging. In fact, actions can be undertaken to obstruct this downturn. Many of these steps are lifestyle-related, plausibly none more consequential than exercise. ... Based on consensus guidelines developed by a working group of world-renowned experts on aging and exercise--the task force of the International Conference of Frailty and Sarcopenia Research (ICFSR), this article not only provides exercise recommendations for older adults, but also offers a review of the role of physical activity in addressing several health-related concerns that older adults often have.
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Delaying Parkinson's with regular exercise by Jackie Russell, RN, BSN, CNOR
Probably the best-known person living today with Parkinson's disease is actor, advocate and author Michael J. Fox. Diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's at age 29 in 1991, he retired from acting in 2000, the same year he launched The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. While the foundation has transformed the Parkinson's landscape over the past two decades, Fox has inspired people with his return to acting, his activism and his best-selling books. In his new publication, No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality, the 59-year-old announces plans to retire again from acting due this time to declining health. But he also writes about the years after his first retirement, during which he worked with a movement disorder specialist who focused on nutrition, physical therapy and fitness. That time, he says, was "restorative, less stressful," enabling him "to get a better grip on the disease." Diagnosed typically in older people, Parkinson's is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, a disorder characterized by "loss of neurons [nerve cells] in the central nervous system, which leads to deficits in specific brain functions.".... What causes Parkinson"s remains largely unknown. There is no cure. Symptomatic treatment options include medications, surgical therapy, lifestyle modifications and physical activity.
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Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans: Understand and apply the 2018 recommendations by Kathie C. Garbe, PhD, MCHES, and Mary E. Sanders, PhD, FACSM, RCEP, CDE
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (PAG), initially launched in 2008, has served as the preferred source for policy, programming and funding for physical-activity programs throughout the United States for a decade. In 2018, based on the expertise of 17 nationally recognized leaders in health and physical activity, a second edition was published. These updated guidelines reflect more extensive, science-based guidance that further emphasizes how regular physical activity leads to improved overall health and reduces the risk of many chronic diseases. The PAG's second edition was motivated by new findings that regular physical activity over the long term can produce significant health benefits, especially in light of new data showing disturbingly low activity levels.
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Splash! Gravity & levity: Belt out a water workout in any depth by Mary E. Sanders, PhD, CDE, RCEP, FACSM
Yoko Holcombe has been teaching water exercise at the Big Canoe Fitness Center in Jasper, Georgia, for 15 years. The facility’s swimming pool has shallow- and deep-water sections, and her longtime regular participants say they love the feeling of working out in the water with the support of a buoyancy belt. This equipment suspends an individual with feet off the bottom in shallow or deep depths. In this article, we'll explore the advantages of adding a buoyancy belt to exercise at any depth. Then we'll incorporate this equipment into an all-depths workout that includes different formats for variety and fun.
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Splash! Infusing the flavor of pilates into water exercise by Mary E. Sanders, PhD, CDE, RCEP, FACSM
Joseph Pilates developed and taught a method of exercise that kept him physically robust until he died in his 80s. Pilates is practiced on land as a means to improve performance, to rehabilitate an injury and to achieve health and wellness. Researchers have defined the popular discipline as "a mind-body exercise that requires core stability, strength, and flexibility, with an attention to muscle control, posture, and breathing." ... With respect to my pilates colleagues, and in the spirit of cooperative learning, I'd like to take this opportunity to apply some of the discipline’s core concepts, so together, we develop an innovative, synergistic, "pilates inspired" experience in the pool.
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