Sports Managment

Assignment 6: Special Populations and Sports

Clayon Conner

Liberty University

        The first elderly program would be called “Fit for Me” which would introduce fitness into the elderly peoples lives to increase life expectancy. I believe fitness is a lifestyle that people should be encouraged in participating in it. Fitness promotes physical health for all individuals but especially the elderly. There are three perks to what exercise does for the elderly. The first is it helps them maintain or lose weight. The second they help reduce the impact of illness and chronic disease. The third it enhances mobility, flexibility, and balance. All of the things I listed will increase the life expectancy of elderly. This programs will target those individuals that don’t work out normally and those that do to continue to include fitness into their daily schedule. These group classes can be taken how ever the individual can take them either standing or seated. This way it will include those that have disabilities which the instructor will modify the routine when needed for those individuals. To start the class, the first activity will be a five to ten minute warm up which will make their blood circulate better. The second activity will be a cardio workout for about fifteen minutes. The third activity will be some strength training activities that will last around fifteen minutes. The fourth activity would be five to ten minutes of stretching exercises that will help with flexibility. The fifth activity would be a cool-down that will last five to ten minutes. The classes will last around an hour and the classes would meet 2 times a week on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and last year around. I believe the elderly is interested in living longer and healthier lives. The way that this could be made into a sport is that we can make a contest out of who has the strongest upper body strength among men and women.  We could do the same with lower body strength as well. The resources that I would need is a fitness center such as the YMCA. If the YMCA is available, the participants must be members if not they would have to pay extra to join the classes. I would also need a certified trainer that’s specialized in the elderly.

        Another program would be called “Lets Walk” which will introduce walking as an exercise and make it fun for all. Like I mentioned earlier fitness is a lifestyle. This program will not only introduce fitness to the elderlies lives it will have a social aspect that comes along with it. Walking has many benefits that helps everyone especially the elderly. Walking improves the circulation and walking is known to help support your joints. Research out of the University of Michigan Medical School and the Veterans Administration Ann Arbor Healthcare System says those who exercise regularly in their fifties and sixties are 35 percent less likely to die over the next eight years than their non-walking counterparts (“12 Benefits of Walking,” n.d.). Walking is also known to lead to a longer and healthy life, so I know that my program will be beneficial to the elderly. This program will target those inactive elderly plus those that are looking to add more activity into their lives. This program will have a maximum of 25 people. To start the class, the first activity will be a five to ten minute warm up which will make their blood circulate better. The second activity will be a normal paced five to ten-minute walk. Each individual will be partnered with a buddy so that there will be human interaction throughout the group. Socialization will make this program fun simply because most of the elderly tend to keep to themselves. The third activity will include a moderate paced walk which will last for 5 minutes. The fourth will include intervals of normal paced and moderate paced walking which they will walk normal paced for five minutes and moderate pace for three minutes, they will do this three times. The fifth activity would be to have them walk fast paced for three minutes. Following the faced paced walk they have to do a slower paced walk that will bring their heart rate down. After the cool down they would have to stretch to help with their flexibility and agility. The group walks will last roughly an hour and they would meet three times a week on Mondays, Wednesday’s, and Fridays. I think that a lot of elderly are interested in walking. I see older individuals walking in the malls to get their daily exercise these days. We could have some type of speed walking contest for those in these programs, so whoever completes two laps the fastest wins. We could also have a step contest on a weekly basis to see who completed the most steps in a week. I would need a few different resources for this program which includes somewhere with a track so maybe a school’s track or an indoor facility for the colder months. I would also need a certified trainer that’s specialized in the elderly. I would also need some step trackers for each person enrolled into this program.