Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

Congratulations! You’ve decided to get started with your fitness journey! Now what?

Deciding that you want to begin a regular exercise routine can be a big step, but once you make that decision, getting started can be intimidating. Here are some simple steps to take to get you on the right track. It’s important to note that you should receive clearance from your doctor before beginning a new exercise program.

1. Figure out what type of exercise you enjoy. If you have exercised in the past, what did you enjoy doing then? What type of exercise sounds enjoyable to you? Do you enjoy group classes, exercising with a friend, or by yourself? Do you enjoy being outside or prefer indoors? Ask yourself these types of questions. It’s important that you find some enjoyment in the exercise that you are doing, otherwise you are less likely to stick with it. If you aren’t sure what you enjoy, try a few different classes, try going for a few walks, try out the exercise equipment in the fitness center, or schedule a fitness evaluation with the fitness staff so they can give you guidance.
2. Make a schedule. Another great way to make sure you stick with your exercise routine is to make a schedule. Figure out how many days per week you are going to exercise, what time of day, and how many minutes. It will vary depending on everyone. In general, I recommend starting with 2-3 days per week for 20-30 minutes. The time of day will depend on if you are a morning person or evening person. Whenever you feel you have the most energy or have room in your schedule is when you should schedule your exercise.
3. Find your “Why”. Why did you decide to start your fitness journey? Your first thought might be something straightforward, such as to improve your balance, to move better, to get stronger, etc. Try taking it a step farther. Why do you want to move better? The answer to that could be anything, but an example may be something like “So that I can do more activities with my grandkids.” It’s important to have a strong enough reason why you are starting or continuing your exercise program, so that on days you don’t feel like doing it, you can come back to that reason and remind yourself why you are doing it.
4. Give yourself grace. I think another part of getting started with an exercise routine that can be intimidating is thinking that it must be all or nothing. As a fitness professional, I am all about helping people find ways to make exercise a part of your daily life, but that doesn’t mean your whole routine and progress is thrown off if you miss a day or even a week. Sometimes things happen, you get sick, or your spouse has medical issues, or a family member needs help, or anything unplanned happens to throw off your schedule. That’s OK! We can’t prepare for these things, so it’s important to not be too hard on yourself if your exercise routine gets pushed aside while you’re dealing with whatever is going on. All you can do is start back up once things have calmed down.

How do you plan to make your health and fitness a priority this year?

Training elements from boxing have become very popular in the active aging segment of the population so it stands to reason that it would be a great training element to include in a senior living fitness program. The benefits when done correctly are immense and include improved balance, cardiovascular fitness, strength, agility as well as hand-eye coordination which translate very well to the functional demands of advancing age. Training methods should concentrate on balance, safety, (lots of water breaks and watch for overexertion,) and most of all….fun! Incorporating boxing into existing group fitness classes or implementing a low impact cardio kickboxing class is a great way to jazz up your group fitness calendar for residents and it is particularly beneficial for residents with Parkinson’s Disease.

Boxing teaches a can-do spirit and instills a level of resiliency that can help those facing difficult tasks, including coming back from injury or sickness. Even though the sport of boxing is an individual one, the camaraderie and community associated with the training is ideal for building social ties and the sense of accomplishing something difficult as a group. The saying that “it’s not how many times you get knocked down but how often you get up!” is universally understood and applicable to almost everyone. Not sure how to get started? Check out the suggested progression below!

• Shadowboxing in the mirror is the best way to begin a workout as it encompasses all the techniques involved in boxing training and gives one instant feedback on how they are progressing. Teaching certain combinations like jab, cross, hook and so forth will also engage the memory and will be entertaining to the class or individual as they try to follow along. Shadowboxing is also great to do first as it is a nice low-impact workout. 30 seconds on with a 30 second break then repeat.
• Next, work on a strength element like static squats and wall push-ups to allow for a recovery of the cardiovascular system. 30 seconds for the static squat/ 30 second break and 30 seconds of wall push-ups followed by a 30 second break.
• Hand/Eye coordination is next and can be done on a speedbag, double-end bag or even playing catch with a pickleball. 30 seconds on, 30 second break.
• After that, working with a heavy bag will develop strength and balance. Hand wraps and appropriate gloves should always be used with this type of work. Those looking for a softer impact can barely ‘tap’ the bag and focus more on the cardio/balance aspects. 30 seconds on, 30 seconds break.
• Mitt work is probably the most fun part of the class or training session and a chance for the boxers to show their stuff. Form a circle or line and have the boxers step in and out for 3 to 5 punch combinations. Make sure everyone has gloves on for this exercise or they can shadowbox in your direction, and you can pretend to be an opponent while keeping safe distance.

Variations of this circuit can be repeated and or modified to allow for different abilities. Finish with 5 minutes of stretching and plenty of water. Have fun and go get ‘em champ!

Considering whether there is opportunity to kick your group fitness calendar up a notch to reach more residents? Read more here…

Throughout my career in the health and fitness industry, I am constantly asked “what’s the best” cardio equipment, snacks, health bars, time of day to exercise, etc. Hopefully I can shed some light on some simple but important questions and answers.

What is the best form of cardio equipment?  Very simple, the one you like and enjoy using. If you hate running or walking, the treadmill would not be the best fit even if it is a good piece of equipment. If you watch tv or read while you do your cardio workout, a recumbent bike where you are supported may be the safest option for you. Follow you brain, if you enjoy the activity, let the piece of equipment you use guide your choice of equipment.

What is the best snack? There are many organic options but the simplest with the least ingredients is always the best. Fresh fruit, cut up vegetables, lean protein like Greek yogurt or cheese or good old fashioned air popped popcorn are good choices. If you have a sweet tooth and are craving ice cream, pick up some frozen fruit bars. They are only 100 calories per bar, and some have actual fruit in them.

What should I eat in the morning if I’m not a breakfast person? By now you have all heard the importance of eating breakfast. Think of your body like a car, would you ever let your oil or fluids go low? Same thing with food. Do not deprive your body of food and please do not deny your body carbohydrates. They are the fuel of your body. Some simple ideas include an apple with peanut butter, fresh fruit, or yogurt with berries.

What is the best health bar? This goes back to you, which bar do you enjoy? Choose options that are low in sugar and have at least 10 grams of protein.

What’s the best exercise? I’m a big fan of push-ups! When done correctly, they work your core and are a complete upper body strength movement. Plus, there are a variety of modifications that can be used to maintain proper form by using a wall or countertop versus getting all the way down on the floor. Perform push-ups for the upper body and sit-to-stands for the lower body and you have worked the major muscle groups of the body with those two movements alone!

My balance is terrible - should I not exercise? Yes, you should absolutely exercise! By not actively engaging your muscles your balance will worsen. Start slowly, you didn’t lose your balance in a week, and you will not gain it back in a week. Work with a fitness professional to begin an exercise program customized to your needs that will allow you to safely build your strength and endurance over time.

As we get older, the answers to our questions 30 years ago are not the same answers. With so much misinformation out there, continue to listen to your body and keep moving!

Could your exercise clothes be increasing your fall risk?  Wearing appropriate clothing is crucial when you are exercising. Injuries can occur because of improper equipment, which includes clothing and shoes. 

Proper Footwear: Wearing a supportive pair of sneakers is crucial. You’ll want to choose closed-toed shoes that fit comfortably as well as support and protect your feet, preferably with a rubber bottom.   Sandals are a no-no for both exercise classes and the Fitness Center.   In addition to causing a slip or trip, they do not provide the secure foot bracing that is needed in classes like aerobics or balance.   Open-toed shoes are unsafe and also dangerous in the gym, especially for use on treadmills, elliptical machines and bikes as they expose your feet to mechanical gears and moving parts. They also provide no protection if a weight were to fall on your foot. Ouch! For classes like yoga and Pilates where bare feet are the norm, special socks designed for these types of workouts have rubber grips on the bottom to increase your traction and reduce slips.

Comfortable Clothing: Comfort is key when choosing your clothing but wear items that are appropriate for your chosen activity.  Different workouts call for different clothes, so think about the kind of exercises you’ll be doing. If you’re headed to a yoga class, grab some stretchable fabric pants, shorts, or yoga pants. For classes requiring standing or a lot of movement, choose clothing that is loose but slim-fitting to your body.   Moving arms and feet can easily become entangled in baggy or flowing clothing such as draped shirts, wide-legged or palazzo pants.

Consider the Climate: In addition to the activity, also consider the climate. When available, choose lightweight breathable fabrics that wick sweat away from your body as opposed to pure cotton which only absorbs dampness and becomes heavy and bulky as it gets wetter. In addition to helping pull sweat away from your skin, fabrics made for performance wear can help cool your body down and sometimes even provide SPF protection from the sun.

Today, workout attire is relatively easy to find and doesn’t have to be expensive. Nearly every store, from Walmart to Nordstrom, carries their own line of fitness clothing. Previously only available in small, medium and large sizes, yoga pants, leggings, training pants and running shorts now come in all shapes and sizes, and the options are endless.   Athleisure wear is on the rise so chances are you’ll be able to find clothing and shoes that are made for your exercise style and safe for the activities you like to participate in.

Throughout the past year, everyone’s wellness routine has been thrown upside down at some point or another. Maybe you figured out what your ‘new norm’ looks like, you are not sure where to start, or you are somewhere in the middle trying to find that new norm. A lot of the residents at the senior living community where I am employed are unsure of where to start, specifically after the pandemic.

It felt like all at once, a handful of residents became aware of how far they regressed with taking the stairs, causing not only concern but also action. The residents were out at a Colts game or the symphony, had to take a set of stairs to their seats and came face-to-face with the harsh reality of how challenging the stairs were not only physically, but also mentally. We decided to add a “Stair Master” class to our group fitness schedule, which allowed the residents to learn proper biomechanics of taking the stairs, work on their capabilities twice a week, and have a support group that understood the struggles with the stairs. We had this class 2x per week for 4 months, each time focusing on the stairs in addition to strength, cardiovascular fitness, balance, and stability. Below are the three concepts we looked at each month to not only help evaluate if we were targeting what we wanted to target, but it was also used as an aide for residents to see their progress.

• Evaluation. There was no gold standard evaluation for out goals, so we made up our own evaluation. We wanted to overshoot what residents would typically have to do at an outing so regardless of how many stairs, they would be confident. The first Thursday of the month, we would perform 4 continual minutes of stairs and record the results. As the months went by, the residents had pride in how they felt as well as how far they had come along since the first evaluation.
• Intensity. Classes lasted 45 minutes, with a water break around the halfway point. We would consistently change when in the class we did the stairs, the duration spent on the stairs, and use work to rest ratios to help add intensity to the exercise without overloading the residents. If the stairs were added towards the end of the class, we found that residents were challenged more than if they were at the beginning of class. Overtime, going down the stairs presented a greater challenge, specifically mentally, and that allowed for our class to focus on overcoming mental barriers.
• Rate of Perceived Exertion. Once residents completed the 4-minute evaluation, we would ask them to rate their perceived exertion on a scale of 1-10. At the end of the 4 months, we saw the number of flights of stairs residents successfully performed did not increase exponentially, however their rate of perceived exertion consistently decreased.

How are you creatively adapting to the needs of your residents?

Programs and events don't always turn out like we plan. Sometimes we misjudge interest, and sometimes we misjudge the timing or venue. In other cases, the program is well done, but we don't meet our goals because we didn't set the right target to begin with. We're managing close to 30 client fitness programs in senior living communities, so we're bound to miss the mark on a program here and there. What's important to me is that we learn from our missteps so that the next time we offer an initiative, it's a more complete program.

If you're looking for ways to continuously improve what you're offering to residents, check out our insights on a few programs below. For more on our process of goal setting and evaluating the programs we run, check out this blog.

Membership Drive Month

The Program and Goals:

Last April, Tim hosted a membership campaign to attract residents who were not members of the fitness center to join. Goals for the initiative were simple, as was the overall structure of the program. 

• Gain five new members during April
• Inspire each new member to attend at least one group fitness class during April

The fitness program at this client community is well-established with about 67% of the eligible residents already members of the fitness center. They regularly gain about five to six new members each month, so the focus of this program was a targeted outreach to long-standing residents who had not yet joined the fitness center. Tim believed that if he could get them in the door for orientation by lowering the barriers to joining AND inspire them to attend at least one group fitness class during the month they joined, those new members might be more active/engaged in the long run.

Tim set up "open orientations" for the month to create easier opportunities for non-members to attend. Despite issuing personal membership packet invitations to each of these residents, no one attended those orientation sessions, nor were any of the membership packets returned. While they did pick up five new members in the month, they all came from a pool of newer residents who had moved to the community recently. And of those five who joined, only one attended a class during April.

What we learned:

Sending invitations by community mail to non-members didn't generate a response, so future membership programs need to enlist a different outreach approach at this community. It is worth noting that we had a strong positive response to this very approach at a different client community. So if you operate multiple venues, you may need to adjust your approach per location.

2018 Winter Olympics

The Program and Goals: 

To capitalize on the winter games, Alyssa ran her own version of the Olympics for the residents in her Minnesota community. Her goals were tied directly back to fitness center membership and participation:

• Increase the number of total visit to 1,500 in February 2018 (the previous year, February visits had reached 1,125)
• Increase by 10% the number of members who reach the 5+ or 8+ visit per month categories
• Gain three new members during February 2018

Alyssa was able to achieve the total visits goal (1,705 visits in February 2018) and the membership goal (5 new members gained in February 2018). But she didn't reach the goal focused on frequent visitors (5+ or 8+ visits per month).

What we learned:

While Alyssa was quite successful at using her Olympics program to get a lot of people to use the fitness center, many of the elements of the program did not promote repeat visits. Additionally, many of the events occurred outside of the fitness center. (Click here to read Alyssa's reflection on teaching the residents new skills during her Olympics program.)

She received positive survey feedback from participants.

• 95% rated the program as excellent
• 75% noted the program was extremely well organized
• 85% said the program exceeded their expectations

In reality, the program itself was strong. But the goal focused on increasing frequent fitness center visits was probably the wrong aim. Future offerings like this that aren't specifically targeted to draw members into the fitness center will be created with different program goals in mind.

Want to find out more about how NIFS can provide this kind of smart, strategic programming to your residents? 

I hear from a lot of leadership in senior living communities who know that there's more that could be done with their resident exercise program, but they aren't sure how to get their staff to ramp things up. If you find yourself in this situation, check out the list below for common challenges and opportunities to do better for your residents.

Our participation is lower than it should be.

There are a few reasons that participation in your fitness program might run lower than it should.  The first thing to determine is whether you have reliable data about who is participating. When we  start working with a community, we often learn that they may have total (or estimated) counts for group fitness class participation and that's the end of their program data.  

• Start by tracking participation per resident. You'll have more reliable information about who is participating, how frequently they attend, and what they participate in. You'll also gain knowledge about who isn't coming to the fitness center and/or classes.
• If your staff can deliver on individual services for residents, add fitness and balance testing along with exercise prescriptions to provide residents who aren't participating with the support they need to feel safe and inspired to begin an exercise program.

[Read More: 4 Strategies to Engage More Residents in Your Exercise Program]

Our group fitness class calendar needs a do-over.

It's common for the group fitness class calendar to get set on autopilot without critical evaluation of what needs to be updated.

• Start by using the participation data to figure out which classes really deserve a spot on your calendar.
• The balance classes our staff teach in our client communities are by far the most popular format. If you don't have dedicated balance training classes on the calendar, add them now. It's not enough to have balance training mixed in with a strength class or another blended format.
• Carefully consider class descriptions; how you word group fitness opportunities for residents can make a big difference in what resonates with a previously inactive audience.

We need to be offering more fun programs.

Creating fun and inspiring programs to invite more participation in the fitness center is one of the best parts of the job! It's really central to how our staff are supporting residents in the client fitness centers we manage. Consider that engaging programs should be more than just fun; they should be built strategically to meet a specific goal. For example, NIFS Fitness Freeze program was a solid solution to combat the traditional fitness center visit decline we see in December each year. Or, think more holistically about Active Aging Week and use National Senior Health and Fitness Day to offer non-traditional options for physical activity.

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If you're committed to keeping your fitness staff in house, then they need some support to start improving what they're offering your residents. Our eBook on how to turn your fitness center from vacant to vibrant is a great next step.

If you follow our blog, you’ve no doubt figured out that we’re big fans of data. Our staff aren’t statisticians, but they do regularly measure the impact of their programming to better understand what’s working and why. They also do quite a bit of work gathering data with and for the individuals they serve; most commonly that information is gathered through a fitness evaluation.

Testing Senior Fitness

For our senior living clients, the Senior Fitness Test is the traditional tool we use. It includes assessments like a chair stand, a chair sit-and-reach, and a two-minute step test. (If you want a little bit deeper dive on assessments with older adults, read this article.)

It’s a quality series of tests that have been validated in the scientific literature, and the individual tests are safe to use on participants with a broad range of abilities. And it helps our staff set benchmarks with participants on their physical fitness. Sometimes it offers red flags that trigger a referral to therapy, but more often than not, it’s simply a starting point for the participant, and it offers an opportunity to establish fitness goals in connection with a personalized exercise program.

But many communities don’t have the benefit of a trained exercise specialist onsite, like NIFS staff, who can do that follow up with participants. Additionally, some equipment is required to perform the tests. Where budgets are a challenge, the equipment may not make it into the budget.

The Walking Speed Study

As it turns out, there may be another very simple way to look at assessments. Of course, the tests you give depend on what you want to measure, but if you’re looking for a way to measure longevity in your residents, a walking test may be all that’s needed. According to this study, walking speed may be a good predictor of life span across categories of age, race, and height, but it was found to be particularly useful at determining life expectancy for individuals who were functionally independent and who were older than age 75.

The study specifically looked at nine studies between 1986 and 2000 assessing community-dwelling adults age 65 or older. All participants had baseline gait speed data and were followed for 6 to 21 years. In clinical applications from this study, physicians working with older adults on treatment plans could use results of a simple walking-speed test to determine best course of treatment. But there are applications in your community setting as well.

Walking is a simple activity for most of us, but it requires the use of energy and the coordination of multiple systems within the body. Decreased mobility–gait speed–may be an indicator of a decline in those various systems and an overall decline in vitality for the individual. Thus, tracking changes in gait speed over time for your residents could allow your multidisciplinary team of community professionals to intervene as you start to track a decline for a particular resident.

You can download a simple toolkit for measuring gait speed here. With nothing more than a marked-off area, a stopwatch, and some math, you can be on your way to assessing your residents’ longevity.

If you’re looking for more than a simple gait assessment to help your residents improve their fitness level, download our quick read below to see why senior living communities across the U.S. are partnering with NIFS to manage their fitness centers.