Senior Fitness Groups Battle Over How Much Exercise Is Enough

Sept. 23, 02 - New dietary guidelines from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommend that people exercise for 60 minutes every day to avoid weight gain as they age, according to a statement by the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA), that says this is more than enough and may actually discourage mature adults from exercise.

"While well intentioned, this report could create a greater resistance and lack of understanding in the older population towards physical activity," says Colin Milner, CEO of the ICAA, which claims to be the world's largest senior fitness and wellness association

"What we need to do," he says, "is to get a high level of participation, before we start putting barriers in front of older adults who want to achieve greater fitness, health, independence and quality of life."

The U.S. Surgeon General, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommend 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, performed on most days of the week

To help clarify the factors in exercise prescription for mature adults, the ICAA has turned to three internationally renowned experts who sit on the organization's advisory board:

Dr. Steven Blair, who was senior scientific editor for the 1996 U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health, and is currently director of research at The Cooper Institute in Dallas;

Dr. Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, who served on the World Health Organization's Scientific Advisory Committee, and currently heads the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and

Dr. Jessie Jones, professor in the Division of Kinesiology and Health Promotion at California State University at Fullerton.

According to Dr. Chodzko-Zajko, "There is a wealth of evidence which demonstrates that regular physical activity has a wide variety of physiological, psychological and social benefits for individuals of all ages, but especially for adults over the age of 50 years. However, information about the precise amount of physical activity necessary to realize specific outcomes is difficult to quantify and varies from person to person, and from variable to variable.

"The IOM report focuses primarily on weight gain as an outcome measure," says Chodzko-Zajko. "The report suggests that a minimum of 60 minutes of walking may be necessary to avoid weight gain with advancing age. While avoiding weight gain with age is an important and legitimate health outcome, there are many other very important reasons older adults should be encouraged to be physically active.

Chodzko-Zajko continues, "It is not clear that 60 minutes of continuous physical activity per day is the minimum threshold necessary to realize significant improvements in many physiological, psychological and social outcome measures. Furthermore, 60 minutes of continuous physical activity may be an unrealistic exercise prescription for many previously sedentary individuals in the early phases of an activity program. Exercise prescription is both an art and a science. Expert clinicians know that a wide variety of factors need to be considered when developing an appropriate, individualized exercise prescription. Blanket exercise prescriptions, which provide a single recommendation for all persons, can seldom do justice to the complexity of prescribing activity in a heterogeneous population with diverse needs and abilities."

Dr. Blair says, "Given that there are 40-50 million U.S. adults who are sedentary, the 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity is a good starting point, and this message needs to be reinforced. If you are getting 30 minutes of activity on most days, you will probably get some additional benefit if you reach the 60 minutes per day recommended by the IOM. However, I am concerned that the report could prevent the public from understanding and appreciating that relatively modest amounts of physical activity will improve health.

"The IOM report recommends at least 60 minutes each day of moderately intense physical activity such as walking/jogging at four to five miles per hour," says Blair. "This amount of physical activity, according to the report, is necessary to prevent weight gain and to achieve the full health benefits of activity." Blair adds, "Previous physical activity recommendations from the U.S. Surgeon General, ACSM/CDC and the National Institutes of Health underscore numerous important health benefits that are obtained from three 10-minute walks a day. The scientific data supporting this recommendation are conclusive, and I think sedentary adults are well advised to meet that consensus recommendation."

To clear up the confusion associated with the report, Blair believes it would have been more effective if the IOM report read as follows:

Current public health recommendations for physical activity are for 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity each day, which provides substantial health benefits for sedentary adults. In this report, we recommend that adults try to build up to 60 minutes of moderate intensity per day, which may also reduce the risk of weight gain over time and will provide additional health benefits beyond 30 minutes of activity per day.

Blair says, "The recommendation that 'all adults should accumulate at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity on most, preferably all days of the week' should still be the focus of efforts to get the currently sedentary 40-50 million U.S. adults to become more physically active."

Dr. Jones states, "The Institute's statement is not realistic...therefore, it will be difficult to motivate people to exercise that long every day. The CDC and ACSM recommendations of 30 minutes, most days a week, is more realistic."

This week, Dr. Edward T. Howley, ACSM president, also expressed concern about the IOM recommendation and its "potential to dissuade the most sedentary [from getting active]." While the ACSM makes recommendations for the population as a whole, the ICAA focuses on older adults, who have traditionally been among the most sedentary people in North America.

Colin Milner, the ICAA's CEO, supports the ACSM statement. Milner says he has received concerned calls from members of his organization, who wonder about the impact the IOM recommendation will have on the aging population and the senior fitness industry. Based on the strong evidence supporting the 30-minute recommendation, Milner is advising ICAA members who train older adults to stick with the current guidelines.

About the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA)
The ICAA is the only organization in North America dedicated to changing the way we age by uniting and working with professionals in the retirement, assisted living, fitness, rehabilitation and wellness fields. It connects a community of like-minded professionals who share the goals of changing society's perceptions of aging and improving the quality of life for aging baby boomers and older adults within the six dimensions of wellness (emotional, vocational, physical, spiritual, intellectual, social.) The council supports these professionals with education, information, resources and tools, so they can achieve optimal success with this growing market.

The ICAA also takes an active role in helping to change the way society perceives aging. The council has recently joined 49 of the nation's most prominent health and aging organizations to work on the development and implementation of the National Blueprint on Aging. Contributors to the development of the Blueprint include AARP, the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Geriatrics Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute on Aging, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

For more information about the ICAA or aging-related issues,
Website: www.icaa.cc