Exercise for Older Adults Qualification

Jane Mackenzie Exercise for Older Adults qualification

Jane Mackenzie Achives Level 3 Exercise for Older Adults Qualification

Since taking my first fitness qualification – Exercise to Music – in 1992, I have been committed to being a ‘lifelong learner’, and sharing my passion for and enjoyment of education to improve the health and fitness of those I teach. With this in mind, I have just completed my Level 3 qualification in Designing Exercise Programmes for Older Adults. People are living longer now, but also wish to maintain their health and well-being for as long as possible, and physical fitness is an essential component of this.

To attain this qualification, I studied the effects of ageing, and how age affects the skeleton, cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory and muscular systems. I also considered specific conditions such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as postural changes resulting from the effects of ageing. I then covered the benefits of exercise for this demographic, coupled with the associated risks, before focusing on how to teach and support clients with these conditions.

Some of the content of this course overlapped with the Certificate in Chair Based Exercise for Older Adults I completed in 2010, and the Certificate in Programming and Supervising Exercise for Disabled Clients I completed in 2017. The syllabus was not therefore completely new to me, but great to recap nonetheless, as well as to further expand my understanding of this area of health and fitness.

Those of you who attend my Pilates classes will hear me talk about the reasons we are doing specific exercises to help with bone density, balance, core strength, flexibility and co-ordination. I talk about not only doing Pilates, but also any form exercise you enjoy that you can share with others. This qualification has provided me with additional insight into the issues related to exercising as we get older, and will most certainly help me further improve the classes I teach.

And this certainly won’t be the end of my learning process either!…

JM x