The Impact of Age and Education on Physical Activity

How do age and education affect physical activity? Think about how you’ve been influenced by these things and how that’s affected your physical activity. When you think about our own personal experiences it helps you to be empathetic towards others; who may be similar or different. It also allows you to come from a real, lived perspective and allows you to connect with your client. This does not mean that you should use or share all of our personal experiences with your clients because not all of it is appropriate.

Part of your initial session with a client ought to include questions concerning their childhood and how physical activity was perceived in their family. Some questions may include: were you physically active as a child, if so what age, how did your family view physical activity, were your siblings active and was your family more accepting of males or a females to be physically active.

Age

If you work in a gym you see who works out there. What are the majority of ages you see? Would you say that typically the majority of people at your facility are between the ages of 30-60ish? For the sake of this article let’s use that age range. What do you think happens prior to 35 years of age and after 55 years of age?

For kids up through 12th grade there is less physical activity than there ever has been. In the United States, 43% of children view television more than two hours per school day and one quarter of all children spend four hours (or more) watching television daily. Today only 17% of all schools require daily physical education. This is key information in the obesity epidemic. It would make sense that if kids are watching more TV and are not getting physical education every day in school that obesity would continue to rise as it has been. There was a time when kids were required to take physical education every day. During that same time more kids walked and/or rode their bicycles to school and they played more active games like freeze tag. Kids were more physically active. There were no computers and no video games. Working with today’s kids is going to take some creativity in education and application in order to change the current epidemic.

Between high school and around the age of 30 is the time when young adults are going to college, figuring out their careers, and building relationships. With so much time being spent building their lives young adults generally find it challenging to be physically active. During this time of their lives most young adults also generally are not concerned with health related issues; one of the many reasons that older adults are brought back to exercise. How do we reach this group of people? One thing that might be helpful is to provide short segments of fun exercise. For example, 30 minutes of hula hooping in the neighborhood park.

What happens between the ages of 30 and 60 that may contribute to so many wanting to be physically active? For some it may be health-related concerns while for others their appearance. Regardless of what brings these people to physical activity the hope is that they maintain an active lifestyle for the rest of their lives.

Less than half of those individuals between 60 and 74 are physically active and 65% of those over 75 lead sedentary lifestyles. There are several factors that lead to increased sedentary rates as the population ages: decrease health, decreased mobility, decreased income, lack of social support, and lack of access. The factors that lead to older adult’s inactivity can help fitness professionals understand what to provide to increase the adherence and success for active older adults.