Despite how the U.S. is aging, the pace at which Americans work and play is showing no sign of decelerating. Older Americans (i.e. Baby Boomers) are looking for ways to age well, and regular physical activity has an important role to play in this. As a result, health club programming for baby boomers—strength, balance and functional training—has ranked 2^nd on the list of IHRSA's Top Fitness Trends for 2012.

Regular exercise helps improve a whole lot more than the cosmetic consequences of aging, which are often times “fixed” by short-term solutions, such as risky procedures or pills and lotions that have unsubstantiated claims of the effects. Michael R. Mantell, PhD, Senior Fitness Consultant for Behavioral Sciences at American Council on Exercise, says it best in a guest blog post, Gray is the New Green, in which he discusses marketing programs catered to older adults. When blogging to health clubs, Mantell writes:

“You aren’t in the pseudo-anti-aging businesses of hormone replacement, cosmetic surgery, or skincare treatment. You’re in a business that has staggering amounts of proven, databased research behind it. We know full well that consistent, moderate-to-vigorous exercise will help prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, cognitive decline, muscle bone loss, impaired sexuality, and musculoskeletal injuries, among other age-related disabilities, diseases, and functional impairments.”

 And Mantell’s right. Research shows that:

•     Regular exercise decreases the likelihood of developing arthritis-related disabilities
•     Men and women aged 65 and older who exercise have a lower risk of losing mobility
•     The fitter you are, the lower your risk of brain function decline
•     Fit men have one-third the risk of death from heart disease as women
•     Unfit men have a 39 percent risk of death from cardiovascular disease and 44 percent risk of all-cause mortality.

In the years to come, the U.S. is likely to see a significant increase in physical activity programming that is designed especially for seniors and older adults, as well as trainers specially trained and certified to work with older populations. Successful programs, Mantell says, hinge on having a keen understanding of their values and behavior; trainers who can relate to this segment of the population; creating environments that help make older adults feel welcome; and tailoring workouts to strength training, posture, balance and mobility. 

“Exercise is one of the most effective forms of primary prevention we have,” says Helen Durkin, Executive Vice President of Global Public Policy at IHRSA, in an editorial in McClatchy News. “The practice of primary prevention — engaging in beneficial lifestyle behaviors, such as regular exercise, healthy eating, avoidance of tobacco and other controlled substances, stress management, and routine medical exams in order to deter the onset of disease — boosts our health and puts older Americans in a better position for fighting off the symptoms of aging,” Durkin writes.

You can’t live forever, but you can live well. With regular physical activity, older adults can reduce their arthritic pain, maintain their mobility, help prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s, and minimize the limitations of aging far into their senior years. 

How are you creating physical activity programming for older adults?

How do you get people to do what's good for them? Parents of young children may wrestle with getting them to eat vegetables or write thank-you cards for holiday gifts. (Some of us struggle with such things well into adulthood, hence our recurring New Year's resolutions.) Motivating people of every age to be physically active is an ongoing challenge, despite the familiar and well-documented benefits.

Lifestyle modifications can be a tough nut to crack. As parents of toddlers and teens know, it's important to consider how your message is conveyed, received and timed. There are no guarantees, as we humans are dazzlingly different from one another. Still, considering the mindset and predilections of those we talk to bumps up our chances of being heard and understood - and, ultimately, of persuading people to take action.

Research underlying the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans shows that exercise is good for individuals of any age or physical condition. Older adults, though, have distinct reasons to stay active, and calls for a special focus on fitness for individuals ages 50 and up. Muscle mass tends to decline with age, and age-related balance problems can lead to falls. Also, exercise improves coginition and fends off chronic diseases - thus affecting "secondary aging."

Mining the Data

So how do we encourage older adults to stay active?

Marketers know to bring tailored information to their target audiences? What they know about television viewer demographics leads to the placement of pick-up truck commercials during boxing matches and pharmaceutical ads during the nightly news. So to reach older adults, we need to think like marketers.

Consider the following from the 2010 Del Webb Baby Boomer Survey:

• More than half of all Boomers are more active than they were 15 years ago.
• The top reasons to exercise are to "optimize health," "improve appearance," "reduce stress," and "improve self-confidence."
• Boomers plan to retire later (age 67, say those turning 50) and continue working after retirement.
• Approximately 40 percent of Boomers have taken up a new hobby or activity in the last few years.
• 71 percent of younger Boomers and 60 percent of older Boomers participate in volunteer activities.

  

Other research tells us:

• Americans age 47 to 74 own the highest percentage of e-readers than any other age group (Pew Research Group)
• 57% of consumers age 55 and up prefer to bank online rather than in branches - a 20% increase between 2010 and 2011 (American Bankers Association)
• Older boomers and adults age 74+ are catching up to other age groups in their use of social networking sites, growing 360% and 400%, respectively, between 2008 and 2010 (Pew Research Center)

Lessons Learned

These data suggest strategies for reaching Boomers and their elders with appropriate and persuasive messages about being physically active. Show them how they can maintain health, work longer and enjoy life. Reach them through hobbies and volunteer activities. Include social media and other online channels in the mix. Remember to segment the audience - don't treat everyone born before 1965 as if they have the same interests, needs, and habits. The Internet, of course, is a bountiful resource for demographic data, and provides tips on marketing and communication.

Here's to a year of better health for all!

What do your insights about Boomers and older adults suggest by way of strategies to encourage them to be more physically active? How best to reach various segments of this expansive demographic?

Given today's societal awareness of obesity and, to lesser a degree, the related chronic diseases, my sense is that most fitness marketing focuses, implicitly or explicitly, on the physical health benefits of exercise. The work of behavior economists, however, suggests that humans are more attracted to short-term gains than long-term gains, which presents profound challenges for marketing the health benefits of exercise programs. As Cornell University Professor John Cawley recently noted at a Campaign to End Obesity event, it's hard to get a 35-year old man to take actions today that might extend the end of his life some 40 or 50 years down the road.

Marketing angles such as, "Extend Your Life Expectancy by 10 Years," are certainly compelling, and may impact a few New Year's resolutions, but probably would not get the majority of Americans out of bed at 6 am for an early morning workout.

We know that exercise is wonderful medicine. And if it were in a pill form, "it would be the most prescribed wonder drug in history." But, unfortunately, exercise is not only medicine, it's also considered work by most people - and humans prefer that work be rewarded sooner rather than later.

To further complicate marketing efforts, many of the health benefits of exercise are prevention-focused, which means that a person may need to feel susceptible to a disease before appreciating the preventive benefits of exercise.

Of course, the physical benefits of exercise are powerful and immediate, and should be trumpeted in marketing efforts to parents and children, but there is another very compelling message that often seems overlooked by marketing and promotion teams.

And it's a message that should be very attractive to parents.

Exercise improves mental performance. Very quickly.

It can, for example, improve your memory, increase your ability to perform complex tasks, increase your auditory and visual attention and, perhaps most significantly, reduce stress and anxiety.

According to Dr. John Ratey, author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Education and the Brain, "There's sort of no question about it now. The exercise itself doesn't make you smarter, but it puts the brain of the learners in the optimal position for them to learn."

For example, a recent study suggests that 30 minutes on a treadmill may improve student performance on problem-solving exercises by 10%.

I believe the mental health benefits of exercise present profound and underutilized marketing opportunities for physical activity providers.

Just imagine the taglines...

• "Improve Your Child's Test Scores"
• "Be Happier Today"
• "Feel Smarter in Just 30 Minutes"
• "Be More Productive at Work"
• "Improve Your Memory"
  

Taglines like these are aimed directly at some of the most fundamental aspirations of our culture. Yet these are benefits not generally associated with exercise. As more parents come to understand the mental health benefits of exercise, for their children and for themselves, I believe the culture of physical activity will grow exponentially.

Is your organization promoting the mental health benefits of exercise? What works?