There should be more seniors in the gym.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “GymSquare refining” (ID: GymSquare ), the author Yu Jie.
The square dances and the park fitness martial arts, some Chinese old people seem to have shown the “fitness” to the fullest. But in the domestic gym, the figure of the elderly seems to be rare.
Even the Senior Fitness Program ranks fourth in the global fitness rankings, but in China, fitness users over 50 are only 3.2%.
In contrast, in China’s 200 billion yuan health care products market, the elderly account for more than 50% of the consumer population. More elderly people are buying more health supplements to prevent disease, and few people go into the gym to prevent it.
Although China has the most elderly people in the world, there are no older people in the gym.
Because there are few elderly people in Chinese gymnasiums, it is still difficult to establish the concept of old-age fitness. Of course, the gym that caters to young people does not open the door to the elderly. Even for many coaches, training older people is a higher risk and a bigger professional challenge.
As a result, the park is the first venue for fitness for the elderly. There are frequent articles about “How old the elderly are in fitness” and ridicule “The Square Dance Aunt”, but the essence of this phenomenon is that the enthusiasm of the elderly is not lower than that of the young people, but they have not entered the gym for the time being.
Compared with domestic and foreign fitnessThe room showed a greater welcome to the elderly. Japan’s Curves specializes in the exclusive gym for middle-aged and older women, as well as Planet Fitness and Silver Sneakers in the United States to launch an ageing discount program to attract older users.
At least from a more mature country, older people need to walk into the gym in addition to the park.
Chinese seniors need to enter the gym. Whether it is the social macroeconomic situation in which the income of the medical insurance fund is lower than the growth rate of expenditure, or the high risk of injury in the “park fitness martial arts”, and even the special health and physical condition of the elderly, specific gym fitness training programs are needed.
The elderly can’t have no gym, and more elderly people walk into the gym.
“Sports Fitness” for Chinese Seniors
The Chinese elderly seem to have no reason not to exercise.
The China Health City Construction Research Report (2017) has pointed out that chronic diseases account for 91.2% of the deaths of middle-aged and elderly people in China. The Chinese Academy of Sciences published in the Journal of Life Sciences in 2018 predicts that by 2030, China’s rapid aging will lead to at least a 40% increase in chronic diseases including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, heart disease and high blood pressure.
Under the trend of aging diseases, exercise and fitness should be their number one demand.
■The cause of death in the elderly in China,Source: China Health City City Construction Research Report (2017)
From the scale of sports and fitness venues for the elderly and the scale of online sports apps, the sports needs of the elderly in China are considerable.
As early as 2010, outdoor parks in China were equipped with more than 150,000 outdoor fitness paths such as “horizontal bars and squatters”, while the elderly over 60 years old accounted for 50% of the number of people using the fitness path.
Apps the middle-aged and old-aged square dance app, the sugar bean, the user broke 200 million this year, almost close to the user volume of Keep.
In the domestic gymnasium, the 25-30-year-old crowd is the main force, the square dances and the park equipment movement, and the elderly in China exercise and exercise in these places.
■糖豆APP
But outdoor fitness is just an entrance to the exercise and fitness habits of the elderly. A safer and more efficient way to exercise, the gym may be one of the inevitable choices.
For example, the fiery “park fitness martial arts” is actually a very high-risk sport. It is very risky to use only the horizontally fixed horizontal bar loopback action. There is no medical guidance for cervical cervical traction. Even hitting trees for the purpose of stimulating acupuncture points has no theoretical basis and no clinical practice support.
■Source:澎湃新闻
Scientificly, there are many theories to study, such as the US NSCA, to support the elderly should participate in the planned combination of resistance and aerobic endurance training, reduce the ability to exercise under muscle reduction, and frequent chronic diseases. Enhance Fitness, a US chain gym, specializes in providing resistance strength training programs for older users.
With the full fitness background, the elderly fitness program widely implemented in the gym can also effectively reduce government medical insurance coverage.
In 2011, the growth rate of medical insurance fund income was lower than expenditure. The China Health Economics mentioned that if you do not respond positively, the urban workers’ medical insurance fund in 2024 will have a deficit of 735.3 billion yuan, of which the population is aging. The disease burden has a significant impact.
■Source: “China Health Economics”
Even in the case of high and low peaks during gym exercise, the elderly fitness users can alsoAt the peak time, it is also helpful to arrange groups and private education for the elderly, which will also help to differentiate the development under the homogenization of the domestic gym.
In many ways, Chinese seniors need more to walk into the gym.
■Enhance Fitness
There are no older people in the gym
Compared with the 4th “Aging Fitness Program” in the 2019 ACSM Global Fitness Trends List, the Chinese gymnasium is only 3.2% of users over 50 years old. There is no elderly person in the Chinese gym.
Why are Chinese elderly not exercising in the gym? There are comprehensive factors behind fitness concept, gym operation and coaching ability.
First of all, compared with sports and fitness to prevent diseases, “watching, taking medicine, and resting” is still the first choice for the elderly to maintain their health.
■Study on the Factors Affecting the Health Expenditure of the Elderly in China
In 2015, the study on the factors affecting the health expenditure of the elderly in China mentioned that the average annual medical expenditure per capita of the elderly in China is 999 yuan. In 2016, the China Consumers Association pointed out that the elderly accounted for 200 billion yuan of health care products. 50%.
Most seniors contribute “healthy consumption” to medical and health products, but if “sports is a good medicine” is also established in the elderly market, the health consumption of the elderly should have a component of the gym.
Secondly, as an indispensable “social” for Chinese elderly users, it also affects the fitness habits of the elderly.
Compared with the exercise in the gym, the elderly can play in the park elderly gathering area, talk about children, and even form a lot of twilight love. young peopleThe gym has a community culture, and the elderly are more obvious, but the park looks like a more effective social place than the gym.
■Planet Fitness
On the objective level, the rejuvenation of the domestic gymnastics and the high membership price are also important reasons for the elderly users to step into the gym.
In comparison, Planet Fitness, a large chain gym in the United States, has launched an elderly sports discount program in the United States. The elderly over 60 have a half-price opportunity to purchase gym membership every year. Silver Sneakers, which focuses on the elderly, provides fitness benefits for 1,400 stores across the US for elderly users with health insurance.
■The second edition of “Fitness Coach National Vocational Qualification Textbook”
In the teaching of coaches, the teaching of group gymnastics for the elderly in China is still relatively lacking. The actual application of the equipment by the elderly is still not enough. Even the prescriptions for the elderly can be formulated. The coaches who are leading the training of the elderly are also rare.
In the second edition of the “Nursing Coach National Vocational Qualification Textbook” released in July this year, there is a category about the elderly fitness exercise, which is only the last item in Chapter 8 “Special Crowd Movement”.
And the US NSCA provides an overview of resistance training applications covering exercise prescriptions, physiological adaptations, functional benefits, for people with frail or sarcopenia, and ACE’s special guidance requirements for older users. Differences in related knowledge reserves.
■General advice on resistance training for the elderly, Source: ResiStance Training for Older Adults
In the group class, 24 Hour Fitness, a 24-hour chain gym, and Go4Life, an aging research institute, have launched an elderly group course that covers body resistance, stretching, and multi-joint flexibility.
In general, compared with the “study in school” and the concept of retreat for taking medicine, it is the root cause of the elderly in China who are reluctant to step into the gym. The gym lacks the characteristics required for elderly users. And the lack of special coaches is also the key for older users to adapt to the gym.
Future proposition:Older walks into the gym
There is no doubt that the dividend for the elderly fitness population is welcoming China’s silver economy.
A survey recently released by the Shanghai Bureau of Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the elderly in Shanghai spend 62 minutes a day on fitness exercises, while the elderly population over 60 years old is increasing by 7 million.
However, letting the Chinese elderly enter the fitness is far more than the demographic dividend. It needs to be promoted from the gym operation to the coaching.
■Shanghai elderly spend 62 minutes a day on fitness, Source: National Bureau of Statistics Shanghai Survey Corps
For the gym operation, lowering the threshold for the elderly to enter the gym and improving the corresponding training courses for the elderly in the gym is what can be done to promote the fitness of the elderly in China.
For example, lowering the membership price for the elderly, catering to the needs of the elderly user community, studying the fitness psychology of the elderly users, providing suitable gym culture and links, and even customizing the exclusive fitness courses for the elderly, have their value.
For example, Japan Curves, which is designed for middle-aged and older women, attracts 800,000 users with no men without a mirror, a monthly fee of $30, and an “elderly member companion” campaign. And the high-end health club David Lloyd Clubs pushes the team of senior coaches to provide age-appropriate generations for older users and even help to ease the more awkward fitness experience in public.
■United States the Silver Sneakers Senior Fitness
Secondly, facing the coaching of senior users is one of the most important willingness to increase the participation of the elderly gym.
In the personal trainer teaching, the functional screening FMS is simplified to simplify the hurdle span, straight squat, straight leg elevation, and is applied to the pre-work screening of the elderly group; according to the muscle atrophy characteristics of the elderly users, the progressive muscles are designed. Endurance and muscle strength training; even for cognitive dysfunction groups, using vivid case description instructions, etc., can ensure the development of senile fitness under the premise of safety.
■FMS
In the group class, combine elastic bands or light weight dumbbells with the fun of dancing, or stand up and sit in the seat to imitate squats, or support stretching exercises, and develop joint flexibility by simplifying yoga. Have a curriculum reproducibility.
In addition, some intelligent fitness equipment is also a gym requirement that can be directly applied to elderly users.
For example, Norway’s older version of Peloton, Motitech, relieves the symptoms of dementia by playing the elderly’s childhood life or familiarity with the location, increasing activity. The Exercise Coach in the United States uses artificial intelligence to identify the physical limitations of older users, develop a personalized fitness program, and reduce the traditional 40-minute workout time to 20 minutes.
■Motitech “Old Age Peloton”
The wave of national fitness seems to be the trend of the times. And when we talk about fitness, the elderly are a group that should be included and more valuable.
In China, there are more and more square dance community, community park fitness equipment, and medical insurance card subsidies in some areas. There should also be more elderly people entering the gym for more security.Full, more efficient exercise.
The tens of thousands of gyms in China should have more gyms open to the elderly. In the gym, there should be more elderly people, and exploring the scientific fitness of the elderly in the gym is also an important proposition in the future of China’s aging process. ■GYMSQUARE