Active Older Adults Ideas for Action or Fed up and Hungry

Active Older Adults - Ideas for Action

Author: Lynn Allen

This manual provides a collection of 15 award-winning fitness programs for seniors. The ideas and activities, which have been gathered from programs across the country, are presented in a consistent and easy-to-understand format. Directions for implementing the programming ideas are included, as are sample charts, brochures, registration and safety forms, newsletters, and a listing of resources that will ensure a successful program. Active Older Adults presents a full spectrum of approaches to helping seniors get and stay fit. Some of the programs provide introductions to basic fitness principles while others explain how to lead older adults in specific activities, such as strength training, line dancing, and water walking. There are also low-stress programs for individuals with cardiovascular or joint problems.

Robert Topp

This manual provides examples of previously developed activity programs for older adults, as well as an extensive list of resources including publications, associations, vendors, and experts in the field of exercise programming for older adults. The purpose is to bring together a collection of fitness programming ideas for the older adult. The editor claims the manual will help solve the dilemma of many activity directors who work with this population. The editor and contributors do a good job of presenting ideas for fitness programs, but they do not address other critical issues in program development, including needs assessment and evaluation. This book is written for practitioners who are interested in developing fitness programs for older adults. The editor appears to be a credible authority in this area as evidenced by experience in developing such programs. The manual is divided into two sections. Section I presents examples of various activity programs that have been previously developed for older adults in the U.S. The second section is a listing of older adult activity resources. These resources include fitness-related organizations, individuals with expertise in the area of senior fitness, and printed materials. The manual omits a generic plan for senior activity program development. Such a generic plan might include documenting the need for a program, developing a program with a budget, and formative and summative evaluations. This is one of the few publications in the field which has attempted to document and describe previously developed activity programs for older adults along with resources for developing such programs. However, there is no critique of these programsprovided, nor is there an outline of how to select an appropriate program or evaluate a program's effectiveness.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Robert Topp, PhD, RN (Medical College of Ohio School of Nursing)
Description: This manual provides examples of previously developed activity programs for older adults, as well as an extensive list of resources including publications, associations, vendors, and experts in the field of exercise programming for older adults.
Purpose: The purpose is to bring together a collection of fitness programming ideas for the older adult. The editor claims the manual will help solve the dilemma of many activity directors who work with this population. The editor and contributors do a good job of presenting ideas for fitness programs, but they do not address other critical issues in program development, including needs assessment and evaluation.
Audience: This book is written for practitioners who are interested in developing fitness programs for older adults. The editor appears to be a credible authority in this area as evidenced by experience in developing such programs.
Features: The manual is divided into two sections. Section I presents examples of various activity programs that have been previously developed for older adults in the U.S. The second section is a listing of older adult activity resources. These resources include fitness-related organizations, individuals with expertise in the area of senior fitness, and printed materials. The manual omits a generic plan for senior activity program development. Such a generic plan might include documenting the need for a program, developing a program with a budget, and formative and summative evaluations.
Assessment: This is one of the few publications in the field which has attempted to document and describe previously developed activity programs for older adults along with resources for developing such programs. However, there is no critique of these programs provided, nor is there an outline of how to select an appropriate program or evaluate a program's effectiveness.

Rating

3 Stars from Doody

Table of Contents:

	Introduction
	Marketing Guide: Tips for Promoting Your Fitness Program or Event
	A Report of the Surgeon General: Physical Activity and Health for Older Adults
Pt. I	Program Ideas	1
	Exercise Challenge	3
	5 Plus 5	7
	Line Dancing for Seniors	51
	Maple Knell Wellness Center	53
	Moving Targets	67
	Oak Hill Village Fitness Club	75
	Partners in Fitness, Inc	79
	Plano Senior Games	87
	S.E.E. S.A.W. Exercises (Seniors Exercising Effectively While Sitting Around Waiting)	93
	Silver Sneakers	103
	The Village at Duxbury	109
	Vital Life Center - "It's Never Too Late to Start Feelin' Great"	117
	Walk Well	127
	Water Walking	133
	Young at Heart	141
Pt. II	Resources	153
	About the Editor and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association	193

Fed up and Hungry: Women, Oppression and Food

Author: Marilyn Lawrenc

This collection expands on Susie Orbach's claim that obsessive eating or non-eating behavior is an individual, albeit political, response to a "complex set of social circumstances" in which women find themselves. Theoretical pieces here bolster her views, exploring the neopuritanical replacement of sex by food, compulsive eating as anger, and symmetries between the bulimic and anorexic internalization of ego boundaries and strategies for control. Essays highlighting alternative therapies are full of case references and the compelling voices of sufferers.

Publishers Weekly

In the spirit of Orbach's seminal book Fat Is a Feminst Issue, the authors of this enlightened collectionoriginally published in the U.K.write from professional and personal involvement with the work on eating disorders being conducted at the Women's Therapy Center in London. Orbach maintains that obsessive eating or non-eating behavior is an individual, albeit political, response to a ``complex set of social circumstances'' in which women find themselves. Theoretical pieces here bolster her views: they explore the neopuritanical replacement of sex by food as ``the focus of guilt in women's lives''; compulsive eating as anger denied other, socially legitimate avenues of expression; and symmetries between the bulimic and anorexic internalization of ego boundaries and strategies for control. Essays highlighting alternative therapies are fertile with case references and the compelling voices of sufferers, like the anorexic who asserts that ``becoming what we are requires existential courage to confront the experience of nothingness.'' This book offers both solace and insight and is a vital contribution to a field where the need for a holistic approach grows with frightening urgency. (October)