Overview

The Fit For Your Life Foundation offers educational courses and multi-media materials for the promotion of high quality, evidence-based, physical activity programs in older adults. All of our materials have been developed by Professor Fiatarone Singh and colleagues via rigorously conducted research studies and reviews of the published literature in this field. Our aim is to improve health, quality of life, and functional independence in older adults regardless of their initial degree of fitness or frailty. In addition, we have developed programmatic content and infrastructure support applicable to common residential and non-residential long-term care settings including nursing homes, retirement communities, health maintenance organizations, hospital units and outpatient clinics, and community centers and home care agencies.

Some of the specific topic areas addressed in our educational seminars and materials include:

• Resistance training using free weights and
machines
• Balance training
• Cardiovascular endurance training
• Power training
• Exercise and the prevention and treatment of
chronic disease
• Exercise in the nursing home
• Behavioral programs for optimal exercise adoption
and adherence
• Nutrition, exercise, and body
composition interactions
• Protocols for medical screening prior to
   exercise
• Organization of the multi-disciplinary health
   care team to deliver and monitor exercise
   interventions
• Forms and protocols for assessment of
   outcomes and quality on an individual and
   facility level.

Foundation board members and invited guest faculty will provide training seminars and workshops to allied health professionals, government officials, lay volunteers, older adults, physicians, and other caregiving staff in health care facilities. Assistance with the establishment of new programs or research studies is also available, including, for example, setting up the physical environment, purchasing equipment, staff training and certification, development of specific protocols for unique populations or aims, quality assurance over time, and analysis of outcome and utilization data as needed.

Groups or individuals who do not require the more intensive and individualized personal instruction and interaction with foundation staff described above may also purchase educational materials singly or in bulk for use through this website.

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Our aim is to continually improve our educational and dissemination efforts via the introduction of the latest evidence from research in this field conducted by others and ourselves. We are particularly interested in serving the needs of older individuals and institutions who have traditionally had limited access to quality physical activity and other health promotion efforts. This includes elders from low income and lower socio-economic backgrounds, ethnic minorities, nursing home residents, those with disability, cognitive impairment, psychological illness, homebound elders, and those with chronic disease.