America’s ageing population is posing special challenges, fitness experts say, because it is difficult to design effective workout routines for people with such a wide range of abilities.
“If you are teaching 10-year-olds, it’s perfectly reasonable to do an activity that everybody would participate in,” said Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, an expert on ageing with the American College of Sports Medicine. “But 20 80-year-olds could be as different as chalk and cheese.”
There are now more Americans age 65 and older than at any other time in US history, according to Census Bureau figures.
Still, experts agree that it is never too late to do something.
“Exercise is effective even in the most frail individual,” said Mary Ann Wilson, the creator and host of Sit and Be Fit, a senior fitness programme that has aired on US television since 1987. “If they can wiggle their toes, they can exercise.” – Reuters