Home-fitness: physical exercise and elderly’s quality of life.

Abstract

The home-fitness project is addressed to the elderly and represents a valid alternative in those situations where it is difficult, or less appropriate, to carry out physical activity in conventional ways and places. The interest in this group of people arises in consideration of the fact that Istat statistics predict that the elderly population in Italy will grow from 21.7% to 32.6% between 2015 and 2065. This indicates an increased life expectancy, but also the appearance of new needs for the whole society. Aware of the fact that the ageing process entails physiological, relational and many more changes, we will offer an alternative: the concept of active ageing will replace the outdated mentality of a sedentary old age, the conquest of the individual’s total and partial autonomy making place. In this context, the physical education graduate has motor activity as a tool which, as demonstrated in literature, through studied programs can induce positive effects to the subjects’ functional state. This is aimed to an operational proposal that presents exercises to do at home that need to be thought starting from a preventive evaluation (both objective and subjective) of the person when included in a personalized program. Therefore, the objective is to have the needs, will and wellbeing of the elderly that will follow the program developed for them at the center of the work.