Refresh an Aging Mindset

CREATIVE INTENTIONAL PROGRAMMING TO ENHANCE SELF-CONFIDENCE FOR OLDER ADULTS

By Janice Hutton

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU HEARD SOMEONE COMMENT ABOUT THEIR AGE AND SAY “OH, I’M TOO OLD FOR THAT” WHEN DESCRIBING AN ACTIVITY OR EXERCISE CHOICE?

For many people, their “stop doing” list continues to grow as they age. The “I don’t do it” list might include action sports like snow skiing due to fear of injury. Then there could be the “I shouldn’t do it” list of activities like biking and hiking because there is a fear of falling. Sadly, there is also an “I choose not to do it” list of movements like taking the stairs that reflects a loss of confidence and trust in physical abilities. Remember the “use-it-or-lose-it” principle? Soon a sedentary lifestyle becomes the new normal and health declines faster with less movement. So many people wait to retire to travel only to discover they do not have the physical capacity to enjoy all the experiences of their dreams. It is time for an aging mindset “refresh.”

By 2025, there will be over 2.1 billion people worldwide over the age of 60 and many of them think their best years are behind them as they silently suffer from chronic disease,

loneliness, depression, and an overall decline of both physical and mental health. According to author and flow expert Steven Kotler, most of us believe in the “long, slow rot theory” of aging instead of embracing the “rock till you drop” approach to life. Interestingly, Kotler discovered that even though physical and mental skills do decline over time, it turns out that most (possibly all) of them are use-it-or-lose-it skills. Even more powerful is the 20 years of data shown in the Ohio Longitudinal Study on Aging and Retirement that a positive mindset toward aging of “I’m excited about the possibilities in the second half of my life – my best days are ahead of me” can add up to eight more years of healthy longevity. Changing your mindset about aging has as much impact on longevity as quitting smoking and more impact than losing weight, even if one is obese.

Rebuilding Confidence for Newly Active Older Adults

Many inactive older adults have a great deal of fear and lack of confidence in their physical abilities that stop them from becoming more active. Psychologist Albert Badura (1977) created the self-efficacy theory with a four-stage action plan to help professionals rebuild participant confidence for success.

Self-Efficacy Theory in Action

This chart shows practical ways we, as fitness professionals, can use self-efficacy theory strategies when working with newly active older adults in a fitness setting.

Meeting The Desires + Needs

In addition to rebuilding self-efficacy, it is important to recognize that a newly active older adult has unique desires and needs compared to a currently active older adult. The newly active older adult wants to improve their health (which may include chronic disease), make new friends, feel welcomed, and leave an exercise experience feeling successful. Their training focus needs to support re-learning fundamental movement patterns, rebuilding cardiovascular endurance and strength, developing balance and body awareness, learning core activation, and improving posture with overall stability.

An active older adult wants the freedom to enjoy an active lifestyle with pain free movement, a minimized risk of injury and the empowerment with body confidence to embrace new challenges with ease. A training plan for this group should include developing and retaining mobility, stability, balance, body awareness, speed + agility + quickness, muscular endurance + strength + power, and overall mental and physical resilience.

Intentional Program Design

To maximize physical, mental, and emotional development and success when working with newly active and active older adults, consider building individual or group workouts and exercise classes where coaches intentionally include these criteria:

Movement = include fundamental movement patterns (push –pull – hinge – squat/ lunge – rotation)

Variety = add movement variety by changing exercise tempo (slow to fast, pause holds, fast to slow)

Complexity = layer diverse types of exercise complexity (single joint to multi joint / add balance challenge / add load / change lever length)

Options = be prepared with options for challenge progression / regression (make it spicy, you choose + you use)

Fitness attributes = choose exercises that build multiple attributes together (cardio + core / add a balance challenge / add reaction skills / add agility / add coordination)

Be strategic = create a strategic order for your exercises (large to small / simple to complex)

Three planes = choose movement patterns that challenge all three planes of motion (frontal, sagittal, transverse)

Be safe = be sure to select exercises that are safe and effective for your group (read the room)

Mindful Coaching Skills

Our goal when working with newly active and active older adults is to build their physical, mental, and emotional confidence while also creating a fun and inspiring workout experience. As you work with individuals or groups, do your best to include these critical coaching skills:

Educate = teach them about exercise purpose so that they understand why it supports sports and activities in daily life

Build body awareness = check in regularly and ask them “where do you feel this?” to help them understand their body movement better

Give permission = encourage them to work at their own pace, and remind them that it is their workout today (choose your own adventure)

Cue technical set up = for every exercise cue alignment + posture + core + breath work

Use inclusive language = in every workout address your group as “everyone” or “friends” instead of “you guys”

Create connections = always help participants meet new people and create positive role models

Action Plan

There is a massive opportunity to improve the lives of newly active and active older adults when we combine a mindset refresh with creative intentional programming. Start with teaching an “I’m excited about the possibilities” attitude and design exercise plans or workouts to reawaken inactive bodies to the joy of movement. How exciting – we really can teach old dogs new tricks!

Janice Hutton, BPE Hon., MA., BEd., canfitpro Fitness Instructor Specialist (FIS), canfitpro Personal Training Specialist (PTS), is a veteran in the fitness industry, known for curriculum design, presenting at local / national and international events, writing articles, and empowerment coaching. Janice is a member of Your Fitness Sisters, a fitness and wellness leadership group with Libby Norris, Michelle Kerr, and Sherry Ogasawara. We are passionate about delivering quality education for all types of fitness professionals.