Earlier this year, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association teamed up to create new exercise guidelines for seniors which cover aerobic activities (such as walking); weight training; and flexibility and balance exercises.  You can learn more at their website by clicking here.

This ACSM Web page also provides tips for seniors on meeting these guidelines; it offers advice on starting an exercise program; and it features a comparison of these new fitness guidelines against their predecessors (released in 1995.) This is great information for those of your CAREGivers who support their clients’ fitness activities by exercising with them, or by taking these older adults to the gym, swimming pool, etc—so we’d certainly recommend you take a moment to click on the above link and check out the latest guidance in safe, healthy exercise for seniors.

Below is a smaple from the article:

The recommendations are an update and clarification of the 1995 recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ACSM on the types and amounts of physical activity needed by healthy adults to improve and maintain health.  The intent is to provide a more comprehensive and explicit public health recommendation for adults based upon available evidence of the health benefits of physical activity.

The core recommendation remains fundamentally unchanged despite more than 10 years passing since it was issued.  New science has been evaluated to understand the biological mechanisms by which physical activity provides health benefits and the physical activity profile (type, intensity, amount) that is associated with enhanced health and quality of life.  This publication reflects a review of that evidence, and considers key issues not fully clarified in the original recommendation.

The updated recommendation for adults is improved in several ways.

1. Moderate-intensity physical activity has been clarified.
The 1995 document specified “most, preferably all days per week” as the recommended frequency while the new recommendation identifies five days per week as the recommended minimum.

2. Vigorous-intensity physical activity has been explicitly incorporated into the recommendation.
To acknowledge both the preferences of some adults for vigorous-intensity physical activity and the substantial science base related to participation in such activity, the recommendation has been clarified to encourage participation in either moderate- and/or vigorous-intensity physical activity.  Vigorous-intensity physical activity was implicit in the 1995 recommendation.  It is now explicitly an integral part of the physical activity recommendation.

3. Specified: Moderate- and vigorous-intensity activities are complementary in producing health benefits, and a variety of activities can be combined to meet the recommendation.
This combining of activities is based on the amount (intensity x duration) of activity performed during the week and uses the concept of METs (metabolic equivalents) to assign an intensity value to a specific activity.

4. Specified: Aerobic activity is needed in addition to routine activities of daily life.
The updated recommendation now clearly states that the recommended amount of aerobic activity (whether of moderate- or vigorous-intensity) is in addition to routine, light-intensity activities of daily living, such as self care, casual walking or grocery shopping, or that last less than 10 minutes, such as walking to the parking lot or taking out the trash.  Few activities in contemporary life are conducted routinely at a moderate intensity and last for at least 10 minutes.  However, moderate- or vigorous-intensity activities performed as a part of daily life (e.g., brisk walking to work, gardening with shovel, carpentry) performed in bouts of 10 minutes or more can be counted towards the recommendation. This concept was implied but not effectively communicated in the original recommendation.

5. “More is better.”
The new recommendation emphasizes the important fact that physical activity above the recommended minimum amount provides even greater health benefits. The point of maximum benefit for most health benefits has not been established but likely varies with genetic endowment, age, sex, health status, body composition and other factors.  Exceeding the minimum recommendation further reduces the risk of inactivity-related chronic disease.  Although the dose-response relation was acknowledged in the 1995 recommendation, this fact is now explicit.

To read the full article, click here.