{"id":59999,"date":"2012-05-10T16:17:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T20:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=59999"},"modified":"2012-05-11T08:12:47","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T12:12:47","slug":"powerful-aging-program-ages-powerfully-at-the-uconn-health-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/05\/powerful-aging-program-ages-powerfully-at-the-uconn-health-center\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Powerful Aging\u2019 Program Ages Powerfully at the UConn Health Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mary<\/a>
Mary Carroll Root helps participants during a Powerful Aging Exercise class at the Avon Senior Center. (Al Ferreira for UConn Health Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The GO4Life program launched earlier this year by the National Institute on Aging, the Surgeon General and many partner organizations, encourages baby boomers and older adults to exercise and become\u00a0 physically active as a means of remaining healthy and independent. \u00a0As a result, doctors around the country are increasingly addressing a serious question: how do we get our older citizens interested in and excited about exercise? Well, if you follow the example set by the UConn Health Center and its Powerful Aging Program, in many cases the answer may be as simple as\u2026giving them the opportunity.<\/p>\n

The Powerful Aging Program was established over a decade ago as part of a federally funded research project aimed towards examining the benefits of exercise in post-menopausal women. Developed by Dr. James Judge of the UConn Health Center, the program was specifically designed to study exercise\u2019s effects on this older population\u2019s bone and muscle health. But when the study ended, the participants pushed to be allowed to continue.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>
Dr. George A. Kuchel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was a real demand from the community to have a program for older individuals who wanted to maintain and improve their health,\u201d says Dr. George Kuchel, who acts as director of the UConn Center on Aging and as the Citicorp Chair in Geriatrics and Gerontology. \u201cAnd we were happy to provide it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those involved in the program work with trainers and other staff of the Health Center to perform a series of very low-tech exercises (those that only require weighted waist-belts, dumbbells, and step-up platforms) designed to promote muscle strength, flexibility, and balance \u2013 the three most important things that contribute to a person\u2019s function and independence as they age. The exercises are very low-impact (great for aging joints) and are designed to be extremely safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most common mistakes that people make are that they don\u2019t exercise due to fear of injury,\u201d says Kuchel, \u201cor that they exercise and over-exert themselves. The great thing about Powerful Aging is that it gives this older population a place where they can come together with experts to exercise correctly without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking to Improve as It Moves into the Future<\/h2>\n

Moving into its 12th year of operation, the program is currently undergoing an evaluation process designed to keep its practices up-to-date.<\/p>\n

Linda Yamamoto is a kinesiologist, as well as a certified strength and conditioning specialist who has joined the UConn Center on Aging as a consultant in kinesiology and exercise sciences. She is leading this effort by evaluating the current program from the perspective of both participants and instructors, and incorporating this feedback into an updated program based on the latest scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that that we are following the current best practices for our patients and clients, and not just following the latest trend,\u201d says Yamamoto. \u201cAnd we would like to understand the changes that our participants would like to see so that we can incorporate them where appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in keeping with the Health Center\u2019s tradition of integrated learning, in addition to updating the exercise regimen itself, officials are excited about the idea of one day having university students help out with the program.<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a>
Mary Carroll Root helps participants during a Powerful Aging Exercise class at the Avon Senior Center. (Al Ferreira for UConn Health Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRight now, all of our instructors are staff of the UConn Health Center,\u201d says Kuchel. \u201cBut we would like to get students involved as trainers. It would be a great learning opportunity for students in kinesiology, physical therapy or other disciplines \u00a0to learn more about aging and geriatric issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program currently offers classes at four locations \u2013 the UConn Health Center, the Elmwood Community Center, UConn Health Partners in West Hartford, and the Avon Senior Center. Officials may consider expanding the program to other areas in the region that have an active older population who would benefit from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, not so long ago, experts thought that exercise was only something that young people would be interested in, and they didn\u2019t think that the benefits would outweigh the associated risks,\u201d says Kuchel. \u201cBut they\u2019ve been proven wrong on both counts. Not only does exercise bring benefits for our older patients, but they\u2019re enthusiastic about taking part. And that really is a great thing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those interested in the Powerful Aging Program are encouraged to call 860-679-7692 or 866-837-7737 or visit the program\u2019s <\/em>website<\/em><\/a> for more information or for a class schedule.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The program was established over a decade ago as part of a federally funded research project focusing on the benefits of exercise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":60005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-59999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 22:30:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60014,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59999\/revisions\/60014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/60005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59999"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=59999"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=59999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}