If the fitness industry grew its membership base from the current 1% to 15% of members aged over 65, it would double in value and size
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/MONKEY BUSINESS
AC TIVE AGEING
Never too late David Minton says the healthy movement industry is ten times bigger than the health club sector, and the care industry four times bigger and ask why we’re not rushing to collaborate?
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n 2019 there were over 14.3 million Baby Boomers in the UK, making it the largest generational group. Boomers – people born between 1946-1964 in 2021 – are currently aged 57 to 75. Boomers don’t want to get old. I’m a boomer, I should know. That’s my first qualification to write this article. Boomers followed the Silent Generation – born between 1928 and 1945 and the wealthiest generation ever seen. This cohort followed the Greatest Generation – defined as people born from 1901 to 1927. This was my mum’s generation, being born in 1923. My second qualification for writing this article is the experience I gained helping my mum extend her disease- and injury-free life by 15 years, meaning she was able to live a full life well into old age. Females across England in 2020 have a life expectancy of just 82.7 years, or 78.7 for males. Mum compressed all her impaired-quality of life into the last six months of her 97 years, compared to the average ‘decline’ which is quoted by The World Health Organization and the UK’s National Health Service as being the last 17 years of life. She did this by remaining active, including doing regular sequence dancing until she was in her mid 80s, as well as yoga, working with a personal trainer and doing elderly judo to help prevent injuries on the occasions when she did fall.
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Issue 9 2021 ©Cybertrek 2021
Local authorities, such as Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands, where my mum lived, have improved the way social care, health, community and leisure services are brought together to support independent active ageing through social prescribing, which forms part of the NHS Long Term Plan. Many of us will come across situations where ‘care’ means feeding, washing and personal hygiene, while sitting for long hours in a chair. Not in Sandwell, where the many parts of the health care systems have been joined up and focused on keeping people independent, contributing to society, active and busy.
