America’s aging population is posing special challenges, fitness experts say, because it is difficult to design effective workout routines for people with such a wide range of abilities.
For one 70-year-old, the goal may be to run a marathon, for another it’s getting out of a chair.
“If you are teaching 10-year-olds, it’s perfectly reasonable to do an activity that everybody would participate in,” said Dr. Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, an expert on aging with the American College of Sports Medicine.
But 20 80-year-olds could be as different as chalk and cheese.”
Some baby boomer could be athletic, he explained, while others would be unable to get out of bed.