“Number six, cross kicks!” “Number eight, lift some weights!”

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Age Scotland

On 16^th March we headed to the Scottish Parliament to launch ‘Body Boosting Bingo’ – a game of Bingo where each number relates to a move that encourages people to be more active!

What is ‘Body Boosting Bingo’?

Keeping physically active as you age is one of the most important things you can do for your health. It can have a real impact on your quality of life, benefitting both your physical and mental health. Age Scotland’s ‘Body Boosting Bingo’ contains a range of evidence-based strength and balance exercises such as squats or standing on one leg which participants do when the corresponding numbers is called. Of course after completing the move participants mark the number off their bingo card in the hope of winning a prize!

To launch ‘Body Boosting Bingo’, Age Scotland team members headed to the Scottish Parliament to host a few games with a selection of Age Scotland member groups and MSPs.

Visiting member groups joined us for some lunch in the Parliament before Age Scotland team members kicked off the game. Doug boomed out the bingo numbers in an excellent fashion, Jenny demonstrated the moves for each number with Yolanda showing the seated version, to ensure everyone in attendance could take part, even with the more challenging moves.

“Number six, cross kicks!”, “Number eight, lift some weights!” Some moves are self-explanatory but some require a little more explanation. “Fifteen, string bean!” sees our participants stretch their arms high as they can to get an all body stretch. “Two oh, do the tango!” saw MSPs Miles Briggs and Christine Grahame dancing at the front of the group. Everyone who took part were such great sports.

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Getting everyone involved!

The great thing about ‘Body Boosting Bingo’ is that it promotes light to moderate physical activity in a social context, allowing older people to socialise and keep fit at the same time.

Research shows that we gradually lose strength and power in our muscles and bones as we get older, however this can be reversed. Regularly doing just ten minutes twice a week of strength and balance exercises helps to maintain bone density and muscle power. We are committed to promoting physical activity as a way for everyone to improve their wellbeing.

‘Body Boosting Bingo’ will be made available to day centres and older people’s groups across the country.

To find out more about ‘Body Boosting Bingo’ just call 0333 32 32 400 and ask to speak to a member of our Policy & Communications team.

Grapevines and Kung-Fu kicks

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Age Scotland

Trust Housing Association invited us to run healthy active ageing showcase events at 18 of their premises across Scotland. Thanks to funding from the Life Changes Trust we were pleased to be able to say yes. Doug Anthoney reports.

Number nine: Grapevine. Number two: do Kung-Fu.

These are just a couple of the ‘calls’ that can come up when Trust Housing Association’s older tenants play our Strength and Balance bingo game. It’s a fun way of getting everyone moving, and almost everyone can move: the activities we showcase are based on NHS exercises for older people, and there’s a seated option for most of them.

We focus on strength and balance because these are particularly important for long term health. If we don’t look after these aspects of physical health, our muscles will deteriorate gradually from age 35, and we’ll have lost a third of the bone density in our hips by age 80. The good news is that because bone and muscle are living tissue we can build them up, whatever age we are, by doing simple exercises on a regular basis.

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Our showcase doesn’t just focus on the body. We also look at what everyone can do, whatever their age, to keep the brain healthy. A key message is that any concerns we have about changes in our thinking abilities are best shared with a doctor, sooner rather than later. Surveys have found that people are far more likely to see a doctor about physical aches and pains than they are for problems affecting thinking, memory or communication abilities. Yet many of the causes of such symptoms can be stabilised or even reversed. And if something that can’t be cured is responsible, such as dementia, then getting a diagnosis is an important step towards getting the support and treatment that can enable someone to live well with the condition.

It’s not possible to guarantee that someone will never get dementia, but there are things that we can all do to reduce the risk of dementia. Our showcase highlights these: from eating well to challenging ourselves to learn new things.

So far there’s been a lot of laughs in our showcase events with Trust residents: from Newton Stewart to Stornoway. We’re serious about our message, but that doesn’t mean that we take ourselves too seriously, and when learning is fun it’s more likely to stick.

Doug Anthoney is Training Programme Officer with Age Scotland’s Early Stage Dementia project.

The relationship between sport and physical activity in later life

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Age Scotland

Greg McCracken, Policy Officer at Age Scotland recently attended ‘Learning from the Masters: The relationship between sport and physical activity in later life’ – a seminar hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University. Here he shares with us what we can learn from the research.

The benefits of sports in later life were made clear at a seminar hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) on Monday 13 April, where ‘Master’ athletes discussed the motivations and impacts of physical activity and some of the potential benefits for the wider population.

Funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and comprising academics from GCU, Brunel University and the Universities of Exeter and Loughborough, amongst others, the research group is examining the competing factors people must overcome to remain physically active as they grow older.

Masters sports are events that enable mature athletes to both practice their chosen discipline and participate in competitive games. Some prominent sports within the ‘masters’ category includes athletics, swimming and rugby.

Presentations considered participants’ motivations for competing, which ranged from a simple desire for victory, social benefits, and an understanding of the role which competitive sports can play throughout life, in terms of improving personal fitness levels.

Of course, it’s equally important that we don’t make physical activity for a mass audience exclusive; something that is only accessible if it’s in a formalised environment or which requires specialist equipment. The benefits of physical activity are well known, as are the relative dangers of sedentary behaviours.

This, then, is the value of GCU’s research – if we can better understand what incentivises people to get active and stay active, we can develop and support programmes and facilities that genuinely meet people’s interests.

Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of choice and ensuring that policy makers provide the widest variety of options to encourage and enable individuals to find the physical activity which works for them. That means developing resources and infrastructure from a built environments that promotes active travel (walking and cycling), the availability of local gyms or swimming pools, right up to large scale tournaments and sporting events.

It’s with this in mind that Age Scotland is supporting the first Scottish Walking Football Festival on 7 June at Spartans Football Club in Edinburgh.