In a recent article by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) regarding a survey of physical activity levels for those aged 55-64 years, they highlighted the need to encourage the nation to keep active particularly as they age, to improve quality of life and long term health.
The national guidelines for physical activity recommend people participate in two strength training sessions in addition to their 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity each week. Resistance training includes a range of different activities and has a huge number of benefits, including helping to maintain or increase muscle mass (find out more in our previous blog about resistance training). This becomes increasingly important as we age in order to reduce the incidence of falls, which cost the NHS more than £1 billion a year, and improves long term health.
As a result of the survey of people aged 55-64, which showed 34% of those surveyed did not meet the recommended guidelines at all with 19% stating that they did not know how to do strengthening activities and 18% didn’t want to do this type of exercise, the CSP have created a short animation including 6 different exercises which people can complete from home to improve their balance and increase their strength. Check out the video here.
With this in mind, measuring improvement in both strength and balance is a crucial part of highlighting what activities people should include in their exercise routine to maintain a high quality of life and remain independent as they age.
Equipment such as FitQuest, which provides exactly this type of testing can play a crucial role in enabling trainers to better support their members to ensure they are progressing and achieving their goals.
