Healthy eating for older adults

Evaluating exercise programs

Functional exercise
Signs of poor exercise tolerance
Falls prevention
Content used in session 8

Healthy eating for older adults

Use the table available on page 10 of the link below to compare and contrast dietary
recommendations for young adults compared to individuals aged 60 plus. What are
the similarities and differences? What do you think is the role of metabolic rate in
this?
http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/n31.pdf?q=publicati
ons/synopses/_files/n31.pdf
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Evaluating exercise programs

What things will you look for / assess to evaluate the success of exercise programs
with older adult populations?
At a class / group level:
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At an individual level:

Subjective:.................................................................................................

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Objective:...................................................................................................
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Functional exercise
It is important that exercise for older adults is designed to be functional. It is the role
of the fitness professional to determine the older adults goals and limitations. It is
from this information that an appropriate, individualised program can be designed.
For some older adults their goal might be to play recreational sport. If their screening
information and fitness assessment dont include anything that contraindicates this
then an exercise program can be prescribed to help the individual achieve this.
Standard programming principals such as progressive overload and specificity
should be used.
Another commonly presenting example is an older adult who wants to improve their
independence. In this instance the program should be written towards this goal with
exercises adapted to target specific areas. Complete the table below to include
exercises and / or activities of daily living that correspond to each other.

Activity of daily living

Exercise

Getting out of a chair

Putting on shoes

Picking up a grandchild

Exaggerated walking stride (marching)

Maintaining continence

Signs of poor exercise tolerance

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What signs of poor exercise tolerance do you know of? How do you identify them and
what would you do if they presented in an older adult client?
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Falls prevention
What are the main components you think that should be present in a falls prevention
exercise program?
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Research on the internet to put together an 8 week exercise program targeted at falls
prevention. Think about things like how you will assess and re-assess. Use this website as a starting point for collecting your information http://www.azstopfalls.org/site/PhysicalActivity.aspx

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Last modified 5/09/2013 5:08:00 PM

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