'Against the grain': over 75 years and joining a community exercise programme Research Completed

Title

'Against the grain': over 75 years and joining a community exercise programme

Lead Author

Bevan Grant

Organisation(s)

Department of Sport and Leisure Studies, University of Waikato

Publication Year

2012

Publisher

Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health; Vol.4, No.1, March 2012, 1-14

Contacts

Bevan Grant:

E-mail: bcg@waikato.ac.nz

 

Abstract

This study explores the meanings that 22 men over 75 years attributed to their experience when joining a community exercise programme. Information gathered via interviews was analysed by inductive analysis. Four dominant themes emerged and these provide a framework for representing the findings. All men believed that a physical active lifestyle was desirable for well-being and quality of life, although engagement at various levels is strongly influenced by the social construction of ageing and one’s personal history. Being physically active via a programme in later life is as much an emboided as a technical endeavour. It is also as much biographical as biological, and for ongoing engagement exercise must be deemed purposeful to self, irrespective of whether or not what occurs is in accordance with the scientific script prescribed for optimal health. Just being ‘older’ poses a variety of challenges to adopting a physically active liefestyle in later years, something the men in this study imply needs to be understood.

 

Keywords:

ageing, lifestyle, good health, quality of life

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Areas of Focus

Population Groups

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Provision (delivery type & infrastructure)

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1485

Added

December 17, 2012

Last Modified

December 17, 2012