Physical Activity in Later Life: Shining a Spotlight on Social Context
A summary report has been produced from the ESRC funded seminar series ‘New Directions in Ageing and Physical Activity: More of the Same is Not Enough’ (2015-2017). Click here for an electronic copy.
The series involved policy makers, health and social care practitioners, physical activity and sport providers, and those working within the voluntary sector, coming together to discuss specific issues relevant to the physical, social and cultural environments that can impact upon physical activity in older age.
The final report shines a spotlight on five areas that continually arose throughout the series as being important when considering the social context of physical activity in later life:
The twists and turns of a long life - The need to situate older adult’s current perceptions of physical activity within the context of their life history.
Engaging older men in physical activity - The need to acknowledge and connect with the challenges that many older men face in performing valued masculine identities when promoting participation in physical activity.
Natural environments: An active space for older adults? - The need to harness the potential to maximise wellbeing benefits that might be gained through being active outdoors, by ensuring that outdoor environments are inclusive to older adults.
Digital Self-Tracking in Older Age - The need to understand in more detail how older adults perceive digital self-tracking devices or how these individuals build the use of them into their day to day lives.
Minority Elders - The need to identify the in influences on physical activity that are specific to Black and Minority Ethnic groups and those which are more generic to older people or reflect the influence of deprivation, so that interventions might be tailored accordingly.
Examples of good practice and notable research are offered for each area.
The social barriers to an active society are being ignored
Out and about. Shutterstock
Cassandra Phoenix, University of Bath and Tess Kay, Brunel University London
Warmer weather and longer days can herald feelings of renewed energy and a sense of new beginnings. This year the seasonal change in Britain was pre-empted by a series of official nudges encouraging people to put extra spring into their steps. Move more, sit less and ensure you spend time every day being physically active, goes the advice.
Momentum began to build in late February as women and girls were called to action by the return of Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign. April was the month for World Physical Activity Day, while May featured #MoveWeek.
These initiatives certainly help raise awareness of the role that regular physical activity plays in preventing illness and promoting good health. And it is an important message. Current UK figures indicate that 33% of men and 45% of women are not active enough to achieve health benefits. Physical inactivity costs the National Health Service in England more than £450m a year – a figure projected to increase unless changes are made.
But the simplicity of exhorting people to “be more active” belies how complicated it can be to put this into practice. Increasing physical activity requires individuals to do things differently. It means changing how they spend their work and leisure time, and their habitual patterns of moving or being still as they go about their daily lives.
Can individuals alone make the changes that are required? Public health campaigns imply that they can, focusing on how to live a healthier, more active life. But do the roots of inactivity really lie only in the behaviour, decisions and motivations of individuals? Or are there wider factors which need to be recognised and addressed?
Plenty of evidence suggests that external influences are also important, and there is mileage in ensuring that these elements are integrated into addressing individual behaviour.
Consider, for example, the challenge of raising physical activity levels among older people. This is a priority for public health given the predicted 89.3% increase in the numbers of older adults to 9.9m in the UK by 2039. According to Sport England, 54% of those aged 75 and above are doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity a week.
Recognising the everyday situations of older people helps to explain why becoming more active involves more than individuals simply choosing to behave differently. Many face substantial constraints such as poor health, with AgeUK reporting that 40% of all people aged 65 and above have a longstanding limiting illness, while one in three will die with a form of dementia.
From Ageing: the bigger picture photo challenge. Willem Kuijpers/Photocrowd.com/britishgerontology.org
On top of this, data on health inequalities alerts us to other challenges that affect large numbers of older people. Nearly a million people report having to cut back on food shopping to cover the cost of utility bills. Around 25,000 can die of the cold each year, while 2.9m feel they have no one to turn to for help and support. All of these reflect broader social, political and economic inequalities that are beyond any individual’s control.
Living in poverty, insecurity and social isolation can undermine well-being and reduce a person’s capacity to be proactive and engage in healthy activities. But these obstacles are by no means confined to older people. Across all age groups, physical activity is lowest among those in lower income neighbourhoods.
Among them are those experiencing poverty, unemployment, lone parenting, and being part of a marginalised group. If physical activity policy is to be effective, it needs to recognise these circumstances and their impact on inactivity.
Taking a step back
Fortunately, we have the tools to do this. There is a long tradition of scientific inquiry that recognises how individuals interact with social networks, structures and processes. “Theories of practice” and social ecological models, for instance, recognise the impact that families, communities, organisations, policies and wider structural factors have on an individual’s daily life.
Adopting this wider perspective allows physical activity policy and guidance to be refocused. Recommendations should reflect the fact that individuals are indeed just that – unique in their characteristics, biographies and everyday circumstances. Generic messages instructing people to “be more active” are just the starting point. They need to be followed up by comprehensive, evidence-based analysis that identifies the constraining factors that limit people’s opportunities and capacity for being active in their everyday lives.
This means that interventions to encourage people to move more also need to recognise the wider social context. Local knowledge can be invaluable here, especially when it includes consultation with inactive people themselves. This ensures that specific needs are identified and constraints addressed. It brings a new, more empathetic tone to public health messaging, acknowledging that becoming active can be difficult and offering support rather than chastisement.
From Ageing: the bigger picture photo challenge. Bogdan Zarkowski/Photocrowd.com/britishgerontology.org
Inactivity is a perennial public health problem. To tackle it most effectively, the expert community of policymakers, practitioners and researchers need to pause and take a step back. Looking at the problems that surround the problem will allow a better informed approach to supporting people’s capacity to get physical – whether it’s warm outside or not.
Cassandra Phoenix, Reader, Department for Health (Physical Culture, Sport & Health Group), University of Bath and Tess Kay, Professor of Sport and Social Sciences, Brunel University London
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Embodied learning: New physical activity participation in later life
by guest blogger Meridith Griffin, Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging, McMaster University, Canada.
Later life is not the ‘typical’ time to take up a new physical activity or sport. Many older adults are carrying with them a particular conceptualisation of their body that precludes or discourages activity participation. Put simply, for many out there, poor early physical activity experiences have durable, long-lasting effects. Indeed, for those learning a new activity/sport in later life, they are learning how to be active – or a new way of being in their body. In many cases, this requires a person to deal with novelty, a sense of uncertainty, and the provocation of cognitive reflection and deliberation about the physical body in a new environmental/spatial context.
At the same time, with age comes the inherent acquisition of experience. Adult learners thus have a life-time of experience that informs their learning, even in
new environments, and this experience can/should be considered where possible. To facilitate embodied learning with respect to new physical activity, there is a need to provide comfortable spaces for adults to navigate and explore new bodily sensations.
The oft positioned ‘transformation’ from inactive to active is multifaceted and includes all of the pitfalls and rewards of learning a new thing, with new people. Becoming active following a period (or a lifetime) of inactivity is far more complicated that simply making the choice to engage, allowing your physiology to adapt, and over time improving your aerobic and/or cardiovascular function.
Poor early physical activity experiences can have long-lasting effects
The process from “I’m too old so I can’t” or “I’ve never been very good and I can’t start now” to “look what I can do” is riddled with set-backs and misgivings as much as it is with pride and self-satisfaction. My conversations with later life physical activity initiates elicited many nuggets of wisdom, one of which is that novelty is always a bit uncomfortable. Not everything tried will ‘fit’, and certainly it won’t do so immediately. The crucial thing is to conceptualise this not as ‘failure’, but rather exploration – and part of lifelong learning about oneself and one’s body.
My research in this domain is underscored by the belief that there is a desperate need to go beyond the healthy/unhealthy, successful/unsuccessful, active/inactive binaries with respect to physical activity participation. Instead, it is imperative to work in ways that facilitate joyful (enjoyable) lifelong learning – rather than discouraging it through a focus on progression, performance, and/or staying ‘young’ via participation.
If we are looking to encourage – not morally obligate, but encourage – lifespan engagement in physical activity, this must entail variable design and multiple entry points that invite people to begin or extend their physical activity engagement at any age or ability level. Doing so requires attention to embodiment in the practice and disciplinary intersection of health promotion, educational and critical gerontology and sociology of the body.
Authored by Meridith Griffin, Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging, McMaster University, Canada.
This is an adapted post from the International Network of Critical Gerontology Blog.
Authored by Dr Cassandra Phoenix, University of Bath.
Interactions with other people can play a huge role in a person’s ability and desire to be physically active.
In this post I want to talk about these relationships, another key focus of the Moving Stories project (click here if you missed the first post).
Whether a person exercises alone or as part of a group, their physical activity takes place within a complex set of relationships.
In our group of older-adult participants, some were active with their partners, others took time out to exercise with friends, and some preferred to be alone.
“I find that going out on my own is a stress reliever for me. The only thing then that I’m responsible for is myself, nobody else, and I think that makes a big difference.”
June, Tai Chi, age 65
But creating time away from partners is not always straightforward. With relationships that involve providing care, time out among our participants could cause feelings of guilt - with older women in particular sandwiched between caring for both partners and grandchildren.
In this demanding climate, our group of older adults drew attention to the difficulty in finding the time and energy for regular physical activity. In a similar vein, the loss of an exercise partner, either through bereavement and illness - or simply a lack of interest - can also reduce a person’s desire and ability to stay active.
Many of our participants overcame these barriers with a proactive attitude, changing their activity to one that allowed new relationships to prosper. Some introduced a friend to their existing activity whilst others joined a club to build new friendships and provide a sense of motivation. The latter was especially important for people who had suffered bereavement or moved to a new area.
“As a result of meeting people there [at the weekly exercise class], five or six of us now also meet to go swimming once a week...so it’s all additional social contact.”
Timothy, Fitness Classes, Age 71
There’s no doubt that our group of older adults were a tenacious bunch, all committed to staying active in later life. Their experiences provide an important insight into overcoming issues that many people will face as they grow older.
Physical activity is often discussed at an individual level yet humans are social animals and many people are part of a dependent relationship, wider social circle and community. This sphere of influence can have a profound effect on a person’s ability to stay physically active; either by providing an additional constraint or by facilitating and maintaining activity.
The stories we listened to showed that in some cases the activity itself can be the catalyst for forming new relationships, a crucial ingredient in creating a sense of belonging and social cohesion.
Next time, falling off - and getting back on - the exercise wagon.
“I want to ride my bicycle ...” (especially when I’m over 55!)
by Poppy Brett, Guest Blogger and CEO of Life Cycle, UK
Life Cycle’s mission is to support more people to get cycling, by helping them overcome the barriers that prevent them. These barriers are typically fear of the roads, lack of knowledge about where to cycle, what kind of bike to buy and what accessories are needed. As a charity we are particularly interested in supporting those people who may face a number of other disadvantages that make it even harder for them to start cycling. For example they may have physical or mental health issues, be on very low incomes and live in places where there is no cycle storage. The community they live in may not have a positive attitude towards cycling, and a local culture that doesn’t encourage people to cycle.
At Life Cycle we have developed a number of services and projects designed to help people overcome these barriers and to enable them to take up, enjoy and benefit from cycling.
Addressing inactivity and loneliness in older adults through a ‘social cycling project’.
We first developed our “Over 55’s” project in 2010 when our interest was sparked by a growing awareness of the ageing population and inactive lifestyles, and the impacts that this could have on people’s long term health outcomes. At the same time, campaigners were highlighting issues of loneliness and isolation amongst older people and we felt this was something we could address through a “social cycling project”.
We wanted to develop a project that offered older people more than exercise, as to us the beauty of cycling is that it offers so much more than just physical activity – it enables people to connect with others, nature and the environment around them, it offers people the chance to keep their brains active and to learn new skills and by joining the project is also gives people the chance to support their peers and give back. These elements are all identified by the New Economics Foundation in their “Five ways to wellbeing” as being key factors in maintaining a positive outlook and a sense of wellbeing.
in 2013 we received some funds from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, which enabled us to put on an extensive programme. We wanted to ensure that the offer to over 55’s would enable them to overcome the barriers that were preventing them from cycling and so the programme included:
The chance to purchase an affordable quality refurbished bike.
Cycle training to enable potential participants to gain the skills and confidence the need to join the ride programme.
Route planning to help people find low trafficked and quite routes to their destinations.
Maintenance sessions to give participants confidence fixing basic mechanical faults e.g. punctures.
Taster sessions so that participants can meet ride leaders and volunteers in advance and put their minds at rest before launching into a ride.
A programme of short, gentle rides, that use traffic free routes and cover a distance of around 10-12 miles, with a café break.
A programme of longer rides that cover up to 30 miles over 5 or 6 hours again with a café stop.
All our rides are led by a qualified Ride Leader, who risk assesses the routes beforehand, and a volunteer support to provide back-up should anything happen. Knowing there is a ride leader, who is familiar with the route, can sort our mechanical problems and deal with any issues that might arise, provides participants with peace of mind and this reassurance is what encourages many of them to join the project.
“The Project has been fantastic for me. It has got me back on my bike & I have regained my confidence through the Project. I like the fact that I have discovered new routes & I’m so much braver about tackling new roads on my own now. I even rode the St James’ Roundabout recently, something I would never have done prior to riding with Over 55’s”
We have secured funding to enable us to continue running a programme of 40 rides per annum for the next three years, and have the interesting problem now of having too many participants, and actually needing to cap the rides at 15 people to ensure it is manageable. Our future plans involve encouraging more of our participants to become volunteers to supporting new riders to take part; and we hope this will give participants a sense of progression and achievement and the satisfaction of helping others.
The project is now extremely popular with over 55s. We receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants and a survey we undertook in 2014 showed that it had had a significant/ enormous impact on people’s physical and mental health, social connections, ability to connect with the environment and their cycling confidence.
This is an edited version of a blog originally appearing on the CycleBOOM project website. Key findings and recommendations from this research are available here.
Growing old gracefully with a spring in your step.
This month I wrote a piece for The Conversation, outlining how sport and physical activity might be used as a vehicle to challenge dominant assumptions about the ageing process.
Click on the title above to read the original article.
As with women, ageing men face a number of challenges to keeping active that are both gender specific and deeply rooted in popular culture.
Factors such as masculinity, unemployment and social isolation can create an interweaving complexity of issues that are difficult to tackle. So, as part of the seminar series on ageing and physical activity, an international group of researchers and practitioners met at Leeds Beckett University to discuss these challenges, and explore ways to overcome them.
Professor Alan White kicked off proceedings with a prophetic presentation - outlining themes that would surface time and again throughout the day. White noted how an ageing population, sedentary lifestyles, social isolation and unemployment have worked together to create a vital need to get older men active.
“Each man has his own history, hobbies and social location.”
He paid tribute to public health initiatives in the UK which were, he noted, often innovative and always well intentioned. However, he argued they tended to ignore the specific needs of the male gender and its prevailing standards of masculinity, and cautioned that older men were not a homogenous group, “...each man has his own history, hobbies and social location.”
Heralding from Flinders University in Australia, Professor Murray Drummond showed that these sentiments were also echoed in the often hyper-masculine antipodes. Drummond reflected on his own ageing, revealing that his research stems from the personal experiences of growing older. He uses autoethnography and narrative interviewing to gain a deep and personal account of the meaning of sport for older men.
Drummond focused on issues which many men, whether ‘young’ or ‘old’, can relate to: a competing inner dialogue between his enthusiastic, ambitious, competitive side and his other self, expressing his feelings of doubt, shame and worry about his abilities as a 49 year old. His accounts reminded the conference of the particular difficulty that sporting men can experience with ageing; unexpected loss of control over the body, a growing awareness of its functional limitations, and the struggle to maintain a sense of competitive vitality.
“No one is hard to reach, we just have to get out there.”
Lest we become too embroiled in the world of sport and competition, MP John Battle stepped up next to remind the room there’s far more to physical activity than just competition.
Battle leads a walking group in Leeds attended by up to 30 men every Friday, come rain or shine. He believes the group helps men because of the sense of community it offers, providing a forum for problem sharing and support. Battle sees himself as a member rather than leader of this group, aware that his mental health depends as much on the men as theirs might on him. This important concept aligns with the participatory principle of critical health promotion (e.g., Campbell & Murray, 2004) - in which those involved in a programme are seen as equal to the researcher - helping to ensure that research and interventions stay relevant to participants.
Battle’s final point was a rousing call to arms, “No one is hard to reach, we just have to get out there.”
So on to one of the most gendered of territories, the gym. Professor Andrew Sparkes’s discussion of his experience of weightlifting while accompanied by younger, seemingly more serious gym-goers provided a visceral, sinuous edge to the day’s themes.
Sparkes described an embodied, sensual experience whilst performing one particularly satisfying workout of bench presses, articulated in the thought “I am my chest”. During the workout Sparkes attracted a sideways compliment that he was “doing OK for your age”. He recounted the mixed sense of satisfaction in surpassing expectations that were relatively low because of his age, and noted a further pang of embarrassment when he realised his soft, ageing belly had become visible beneath his shirt when talking to a younger woman on the gym mats.
Sparkes highlighted the damage that is done by society’s tendency towards ‘decline narratives’, or worse, ‘comeback narratives’, rather than narratives that support the ongoing adaptability of the ageing body. He argued that the way we tend to perceive ageing excludes individuals from the spaces where physical exercise happens. He believes the way to combat this is to stop shaming the ageing body and to alter the narrative on older men in their ongoing negotiations with their bodies.
“I am my chest.”
Providing an example of this ethos in action, a panel of speakers discussed Age UK’s Walking Football initiative. Focusing on what the body can do, rather than what it cannot, walking football provides players with a way to revive their physical lives, challenge themselves, socialise with others and connect with other health initiatives and services that Age UK may be promoting. The programme has also formed sustainable communities, with participants themselves becoming ambassadors for the group and recruiting new players.
Finally, Professor Brendan Gough from Leeds Beckett University summarised many of the day’s themes under the banner of ‘Greying Masculinities’. Gough argued that as well as positioning ageing men as being in decline, the moniker of being ‘old’ can also offer possibilities for reinvention, such as becoming wiser and more in tune with one’s body.
Importantly, the day ended with the recognition that ageing is just one of a myriad of issues which intersect with masculinity and our efforts at improving ageing men’s health must also tackle issues of racism, ableism, homophobia and other forms of oppression.
The journey continues.
This blog post is based on the original seminar report authored by Adam Lowe and Glen Jankowski, PhD Students at Leeds Beckett University.
Outdoor natural environments: An active space for older adults
Authored by Dr Ben Wheeler, Senior Research Fellow at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School.
On 1st July, we held a seminar titled Outdoor natural environments: An active space for the older adult? This was our 6th event in the series "More of the same is not enough: New Directions in Ageing and Physical Activity" funded by ESRC. As with the other seminars in the series, it was excellent to bring together a diverse audience to generate new discussions on the future of how we understand and act on the complex array of issues involved in older people's physical activity.
“Outdoor environments of all sorts might provide good opportunities and motivation to support physical activity as we age”
In the restorative setting of Roots & Shoots (an oasis in the midst of Kennington, London), we had a great day of talks and discussions around how outdoor environments could play a role in supporting physical activity as we get older.
Nuzhat Ali [slides], Lead for Older Adults Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England set the scene with a talk on the national context and relevant policy, such as Everybody active, every day! Next up, Sarah Bell [slides] from the University of Exeter Medical School described some findings from her geo-narrative research, capturing the complexities of older people's experiences of being active outdoors.
Barbara Humberstone [slides] from New Bucks University focussed on on water-based activities, considering enjoyment, pleasure and place as features of wellbeing for older bodies engaged in water-based outdoor activities. Katherine Brookfield from the University of Edinburgh discussed findings from the Mood, Mobility, Place project on how urban environments can be designed to support and enable mobility in our growing cities and towns. Finally, Craig Lister [slides], MD of the Green Gym at TCV highlighted the excellent opportunities afforded by environmental volunteering, including TCV Scotland's programme focussed on older people. We wound up the day with some provocative discussions on everything from gender in the great outdoors, to interventions under economic austerity, to the importance of fun!
Wrapping up thoughts from the day, it's clear that while the evidence is quite mixed (a brief evidence summary on natural environment and PA more generally is available from Natural England), there are suggestions that natural and other outdoor environments of all sorts might provide good opportunities and motivation to support physical activity as we age. This opportunity could be capitalised upon through physically modifying our environments, increasing accessibility, and providing specific programmes and activities within different places. However, it also seems crucial that we thoroughly understand the relevant social processes and individual contexts to ensure that the opportunities of our everyday environments are inclusive, and do not lead to exacerbation of socio-economic and other inequalities.
This is a joint posting with the Beyond Greenspace blog.
Details of all seminars in this ESRC series are available here.
Authored by Erica Bennett, PhD Student, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Wrinkles. Sagging skin. Weight gain. Grey hair.
We’re presented with a number of physical changes as we grow older but it can often be the superficial, cosmetic evolution of our bodies that poses difficult challenges.
My name is Erica Bennett and I’m a PhD student based in Canada, where one quarter of the population will be over the age of 65 by 2024. People are living longer than ever before, and this elixir of life brings with it the need to face up to changes in mobility, health and appearance.
For many, and for women in particular, that last pill can be a hard one to swallow. Society’s cultural norms favour young, thin, physically fit women and there’s little room left for the ageing body. It’s not surprising then that older women commonly report a dissatisfaction with their looks.
But where does this disquiet lead?
There’s no prizes for guessing that feeling unhappy about looks - and the ageing process more broadly - has been found to have a negative effect on women’s self-worth in later life. How we improve this perception and, in turn, boost wellbeing, is one focus of my research.
Interested in what people think about the body-related challenges they face in later life, I recently interviewed 21 women aged between 65 and 94. What they told me was surprising.
“With their focus shifting to health as a priority as they aged, many actually expressed a gratitude for the positive ways in which their bodies were working.”
While most used dieting, physical activity and cosmetics to alter their appearance, and voiced unhappiness with certain aspects of the way they looked, many noted that physical appearances were no longer a major concern. With their focus shifting to health as a priority as they aged, many actually expressed a gratitude for the positive ways in which their bodies were working.
At the same time, the women sometimes struggled to accept their changing bodies; they feared that their declining physical abilities would one day rid them of their independence. In response, they stressed the importance of accepting the body-related challenges they were experiencing as they were getting older. This pragmatic acceptance allowed them to be realistic about ageing, and their continuous and successful attempts to adapt to these changes kept them hopeful, happy, and confident.
Might self-compassion be helping?
Since the women discussed the importance of accepting and adapting to ageing-body related challenges, I wondered whether self-compassion might be playing a role in their experiences.
Self-compassion was first studied in the Western world by Dr. Kristen Neff. According to Neff, self-compassion involves “...being touched by and open to one’s own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, generating the desire to alleviate one’s suffering and to heal oneself with kindness.”
At a glance that description may sound a little ‘soft’, but self-compassion may be a useful tool to help steer us away from feelings of self-deprecation:
Consider the concept of common humanity, which asks an individual to view their imperfections and difficulties as part of a shared human experience, rather than feeling like they are alone in their struggles.
Let’s imagine someone is told by their doctor that they have gained weight and that their health is in jeopardy. When going through this challenging experience, someone employing common humanity will remind themselves that lots of people gain weight at certain points in their lives. They are not alone in their experience and others can empathise with them.
Another concept in the doctrine of self-compassion is the idea of mindfulness, which asks a person to take a balanced view of difficult thoughts and attitudes, one in which emotional difficulties are not ignored but also not overly identified with.
Keeping with the example of weight gain, our fictitious and overweight protagonist might blame themselves for their weight gain and experience emotions of sadness or anger. A mindful approach would allow them to acknowledge their feelings, look at them objectively, and remind themselves that they are temporary and will eventually pass.
Finally, self-kindness, asks an individual to be kind and non-judgemental towards themselves (rather than overly critical) when facing challenges. So, a common response might be for this individual to be critical and blame themselves for the weight gain. But a self-kind approach would be for the individual to acknowledge that they have gained weight and treat themselves with kindness - perhaps reminding themselves that what they are going through is difficult.
Some might fear that self-compassion will render them complacent and unmotivated to better themselves. But self-compassionate people are not passive; they take care of themselves to enhance their health and happiness. That said, our fictitious character’s self-compassionate response to weight gain would allow them to take steps to rectify the problem in order to enhance their health.
What older women had to say about self-compassion
Coming back to the women I interviewed, I wondered if they were being self-compassionate, and whether this was helping them accept and adapt to the physical changes they were experiencing. Indeed, most women were self-compassionate towards their ageing bodies in some situations, such as when they encountered sagging skin, wrinkles, and fairly minor and manageable health problems. They were kind to themselves, they commiserated with others over shared challenges, and realised that their difficult emotions would pass.
However, in other instances, especially when it came to their fluctuating weight and loss of functional mobility, they tended to be fairly critical of themselves and felt alone in their struggles. Overall, the women seemed to be self-compassionate in some situations, yet not in others.
“Most of women were self-compassionate towards their ageing bodies in some situations, such as when they encountered sagging skin, wrinkles, and fairly minor and manageable health problems.”
As I continue with my PhD studies in this area, a number of questions occupy my thinking. To what extent is self-compassion a helpful tool in the ageing process? Might it be something we should try to foster in later life? If so, what might this involve? Might self-compassion lead to the acceptance of ageing-related changes? Or might self-compassion be unrealistic and unattainable in some situations?
Undoubtedly, cultural norms impact significantly on how older women feel about growing and looking older. My research suggests that self-compassion and self-acceptance have important roles to play in maintaining health and wellbeing at times when these (youth orientated) cultural norms may not be that helpful. This in turn may have implications for the varied meanings that older women ascribe to physical activity in an era where they are often motivated to exercise for appearance related reasons.
How do older people feature in the new UK Government sport policy?
Authored by Dr Joe Piggin, Senior lecturer in Sport Policy and Management. Loughborough University.
Recently the UK Government published a new “sport” strategy called Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation. Here I offer some thoughts about what this policy might mean for older people.
From the outset it is important to acknowledge that Sporting Future does not exist in isolation. Public Health England’s policy “Everybody Active Every Day” (2014). A good portion of that policy is given to addressing the unique factors that impinge and constrain activity options for older people. It is clear that in many other policy documents as well, much attention is being devoted to the ageing population.
Individual representations of older adults
Framing plays a powerful role in how we think about groups in society, so it is useful to read various official documents critically. To do this, we need to ask, why did the policy writer describe the group or person the way they did? Is this a fair description? What subtle effects does it have on how we think about these people?
In official documents, individuals are often framed in very positive ways. For example, a press release from April 2016 from the Department for Work and Pensions offers an anecdote about a 71 year old fitness trainer (perhaps the country’s oldest!), jolting our preconceived ideas, unconscious biases and prejudices about what being an older person means in society.
In Sporting Future, older individuals are also visually represented. While the majority of images were of sporty children and elite athletes (as is to be expected in a document about sport), they are shown partaking in communal activities. Four older adults are shown on a day walk in the country side and in another image a group of older men and women compete in lawn bowls.
Of course, it is refreshing to see older adults featuring in the document itself. Unfortunately, we do know that for every 71 year old fitness trainer, or active countryside walker, there are scores of other older people who are absent from public and community life. They are isolated and invisible. Age UK tells us that “over 1 million older people in the UK haven’t spoken to a friend, neighbour or family member for at least a month”.
Population representations of older adults
And this brings us to representations of the entire group in the policy, which is usually done through written descriptions or population statistics.
All policies try to solve a problem, and older people are (inadvertently) framed as part of that problem.
The narrative that frames ageing as a problem is well known, and I think it is continued in the policy itself. All policies try to solve a problem, and older people are (inadvertently) framed as part of the problem. Page 27 mentions that “There are no quick fixes but creating this more active society is not a choice, it is a necessity when we face an ageing population …” Another quote explains that “There are several demographic groups whose engagement in sport and physical activity is well below the national average [including older people]” (p. 10). This is also graphically represented with population data (p. 22)
I don’t think these representations are interpreted as “Old people are lazy”, in the way that obese individuals are framed. There is a general understanding (I think) that with ageing, comes less ability and opportunity to be active.
The role of sport in helping older adults
Engaging in sport as a participant, volunteer, or spectator, can be a wonderful way for older people to be involved in their community. I say “can” because it is abundantly clear that sports clubs are often exclusive. Their unique cultures, rituals and traditions, processes and systems are often quite rigidly and traditional, and club success is often determined by younger athletes. This means that these organisations can inadvertently dissuade older people from taking part.
“We will distribute funding to focus on those people who tend not to take part in sport, including women and girls, disabled people, those in lower socio-economic groups and older people”
And so we return to the central theme of the “Sporting Future” policy. The document points out that “We are redefining what success looks like in sport … by focusing on physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, individual development, social and community development and economic development.”
Older people are framed in the document as being a great potential source of “immense benefit”. The document states that “The benefit of engaging those groups that typically do little or no activity is immense. We will distribute funding to focus on those people who tend not to take part in sport, including women and girls, disabled people, those in lower socio-economic groups and older people” (page 10).
Based on this, there is a good chance that national sports organisations will consider altering their own policies and guidelines to focus (even) more on provision to these older people. But we will wait and see just how this distribution will operate in practice. Some awkward ethical questions arise. Could older adults receive funding that previously went to young athletes in the same organisation? How will these funding decisions be made?
The lobbying power of older adults?
While being “old” often relates to a decrease in sports performance, it does correlate with increasing access to decision making power in sport organisations. Many older people are already in very powerful positions in national sport organisations. Governance boards and committees often consist of a substantial number of older people. It will be very interesting to see just how much change is enacted by national, regional and local sports bodies now they have been steered towards focusing on low participation groups including older people.
How this policy is translated into practice will be fascinating to see. We know that translating ideas into action is difficult. Attempting to alter the behaviour of sports organisations that have long-held and justified reasons for not focusing on older people might be difficult, especially if there is a feeling these other ideas are being forced upon them from external funders.
Data and statistics can tell us about trends at a population level, but if we really want to understand the issues that affect people’s desire and ability to take part in physical activity, we have to dig deeper.
An individual’s stories can provide a rich understanding of how and why, at different points in their lives, they have been able to deal with the barriers and challenges to being active that we often face.
So, as part of an ESRC funded research project called Moving Stories, I spent two years talking to older adults about their experiences and how these have affected their physical activities.
Over the next few weeks I’ll provide an insight into some of things we found, starting this week with the pleasures of physicality (quotes have been given fictional names).
Older adults are generally aware of the health benefits associated with regular physical activity, but often these functional outcomes aren’t enough to sustain their continual engagement. Instead, our interviews showed that it’s the various pleasures gained from participation that play a significant role in continued activity.
The sensory pleasures of exercising were discussed by many of our participants. For example, they recounted the pleasures of feeling the touch of wind in their hair and against their skin when walking outdoors. They described the excitement and satisfaction associated with the sound of a ball or shuttle hitting the sweet spot of a racquet. They also noted the joy of smelling a freshly mown golf course or park.
“I love to feel the water as I glide through it, cold at first then pleasantly cool as my body heats up from the exercise. There is a great sense of freedom and buoyancy when you can just float lazily in the deeper end... I don’t really like my face in the water all of the time, but feel great when I do breathe correctly, and feel the increase in speed and efficiency as I glide through the water.”
Martha, Swimming, Age 63.
Other experienced pleasure from documenting or writing about their activities. This involved producing written accounts of walking routes, diaries of trekking adventures and the production of news items for community magazines. This type of pleasure was generally experienced after doing the activity.
For some of our participants pleasure was experienced from the sense of purpose and structure that regular involvement in a chosen physical activity brought to their lives. This was particularly important for those who had recently retired.
“It’s just a part of life. It’s just what I do, like some people get up and clean their teeth and it’s part of a routine...I think when you finish work you’ve got to get some sort of routine. So physical activity gives me a structure and I know exactly what happens through the week, which I like.”
Jemima, Fitness Classes, Age 61.
A number of the interviewees also talked about the pleasures of being completely immersed in their activity. They explained that being physically active gave them a focus, which enabled them to escape, albeit temporarily, from the demands and decision-making of their everyday lives. Often this was described as “me time”.
“It’s just so good doing it, I just love it because it’s totally committing. You’re in the middle of nowhere and you’re on your own...I like the feeling that you’ve got to do it right, you know, the navigation matters, it’s a matter of survival really…It keeps you incredibly focused. I like that, I like having something I can really focus on. I really enjoy just getting away completely from everything.”
Colin, Hill walking, Age 69.
So it seems pleasure, in all its forms, can play a significant role in motivating people to stay active. These insights suggest that messages aimed at encouraging older adults to be physically active should extend beyond a simple focus on health outcomes.
Instead we might try and draw attention to the various sensory pleasures which sport and physical activity can elicit; a mantra which runs far deeper than physical health.
If you’d like to read more about this topic, you can access our full paper, which was published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, here.
Authored by Dr Cassandra Phoenix, University of Bath
Images can provide a powerful way to challenge the way we, as a society, perceive the ageing body.
Alex Rotas, retired academic and competitive tennis player, has spent the last six years taking photographs that defy some of the assumptions associated with the social construct of ageing - assumptions that link getting older with decline, passivity, increasing helplessness and physical and mental deterioration.
Alex was recently shortlisted for the Women’s Sport Trust #BeAGameChanger Awards and narrowly missed out on scooping the Imagery of the Year award, which recognises images that showcase what women are capable of and help to challenge limiting stereotypes.
I sat down with Alex to find out what motivates her and learn how she thinks her images can influence the way we view the physical possibilities of growing older.
CP: What do you do and how did you get here?
AR: I photograph athletes who still compete on the world stage in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I started doing this when I hit 60 myself and, as an older sporty person, had a look on Google to see what images of other older sporty people I could find. What I did find was very little at all (we’re talking some 6 years ago now). The moment you put ‘older’ into a search engine, it triggers (or at least triggered then) images of people slumped in care home chairs. I knew this didn’t reflect reality. So that’s when I thought maybe I should start taking photos myself, photos that would show a different, and more positive picture.
CP: What are you trying to achieve through your work?
AR: I’m trying to challenge what seemed to me, when I started, to be the dominant narrative around ageing, namely that it is a process involving inevitable decline into inactivity, dependence, passivity and joylessness. I still think there are plenty of misconceptions that circulate in our society about ageing. The idea of ‘frailty’ (physical, mental or both), for example, remains central. The sheer physicality of athletes in their 7th through 10th decades really undermines this notion of frailty. Having seen them in action for myself, my aim is to bring them to a wider audience through my photos.
I hope that viewers might question for themselves just how inevitable and appropriate linking the words ‘frail’ and ‘elderly’ is. We can, I believe, all be a lot more optimistic about the process of ageing than the dominant narrative would suggest. The fact is that so many of us are leading ever-longer lives, and we need to ditch some of the negativity that is so commonly associated with it if we are to relish this prospect and really enjoy the experience.
“The biggest surprise for me in relation to my work with masters athletes has been realising the extent of my own negative preconceptions about ageing.”
CP: Describe a highlight, a low point, and your biggest surprise in relation to your work with masters athletes.
AR: Well, the highlight for me has been the friendships that I’ve made with so many of the athletes I’ve photographed. This was something I never expected or anticipated, so maybe that’s been my biggest surprise too! Sometimes I feel almost overwhelmed by my good fortune at having met so many amazing people and feeling now that I can count several of them as dear personal friends.
Hearing that Olga Kotelko, the legendary Canadian masters athlete, had died was a real low point. I’d only just photographed her in Budapest a couple of months before and had enjoyed her wonderfully generous and warm personality as well as marvelled at the multiple new world records she had made. She was 95 though. Still, I think we all thought she would go on forever and that cliché about feeling a huge light had gone out was something I, and a lot of others, felt when we learned she had died.
The biggest surprise for me in relation to my work with masters athletes has been realising the extent of my own negative preconceptions about ageing. Actually it was when I first saw Olga, in her 90s, compete in the long jump event that I realised that I too had some learning to do. I was convinced that as she leapt onto the sand at the end of her jump and fell forwards onto her wrists, that she would break them (osteoporosis, right?). In reality, she fell onto them, got up, dusted herself down, and went back in line for her next attempt. These negative stereotypes are so powerful, I had internalised them myself.
Image: Pengxue Su, born 1928.
CP: To what extent do you try to capture the full range of emotions in Masters athletes? Is there a pressure or incentive to emphasise joy and happiness?
AR: I really like to capture the full range of emotions – the pain, the anguish, the determination, the joy – all of it. Emotions are what make us ‘alive’ and if we’re living fully, we’re going to experience them all. It’s how shut down some of the images of people in care homes can make them seem that is so tragic. My aim is to show how intensely alive people are when they’re competing in a sport they love, so I’m very happy to show as many emotions as possible – the full range, as you say.
CP: What is the reaction of older athletes to photos of themselves?
AR: To start with, athletes would ask me why I was photographing them. When I explained that I was interested in challenging preconceptions about ageing, they were only too delighted for me to go ahead. I’ve also discovered that in many ways my role is to bear witness to their achievements. For the most part they are competing in empty stadia: there aren’t any crowds watching them at all. So I’ve been touched by the pleasure that my photos can bring – photos that show they have been noticed, respected & admired.
I published a book in 2014, Growing Old Competitively, and I tried to find everyone in it to give them a copy. That was a special moment for me, seeing the real surprise and pleasure on their faces when they looked at themselves in print. Mind you, one athlete in his 80s said to me “Alex, why have you put me in your book about old people?”!
“These are the special cases. But they show what’s possible – and what’s possible often surprises.”
CP: Some people might argue that images where adults are celebrated for seemingly ‘overcoming’ or ‘conquering’ the ageing process can further add to the anti-ageing culture that is so prevalent in Western society, while also ignoring the numerous structural factors (e.g. poverty, health inequalities, access to sport / exercise etc.) that can contribute to a person’s ability to age well. How would you respond to this kind of argument?
AR: Yes, it’s a valid point. I would say, however, that I take photos of elite masters sportsmen and women. They are the Usain Bolts and Serena Williams of the older generations. Just as Bolt and Williams show what the young human body is capable of, the athletes in my photographs show what the ageing human body is capable of. And that in itself is, I like to think, valuable. Similarly, just as every time a 20 or 30 year old sees Olympians in action, it doesn’t make them think that they should be doing the same thing – they know that these are people who train daily and who are at the top of their sport. It’s the same with the masters athletes who compete in world events. They too train daily. They too are at the top of their game. No way would I wish to imply that people should feel they all should be pole vaulting into their 80s. These are the special cases. But they show what’s possible – and what’s possible often surprises. It goes contrary to the common belief that as we get older, we should be slowing down, and as we get a lot older – say into our 70s, 80s and 90s – that it’s simply not possible to sprint, to jump, to vault and so on. It is possible – even if not everyone either chooses to do so or indeed can (for a whole variety of reasons) do so.
The issues that you raise – the structural factors such as poverty, health inequalities and so on that can and do interfere with how different people age are important, but different issues to the ones that I seek to raise in my photos. They are a crucial part of the whole debate around ageing, and what it means to age ‘well’. I am simply trying to show, by documenting the admittedly extraordinary achievements of masters athletes, what’s physically possible as we age. And to present a positive, joyful visual counter-narrative to the dominant negative one we so often see in media images of older people.
However, it can be tempting - and ‘easy’ in the simplistic sense - to prioritise the notion of ‘active ageing’ in a one-dimensional way; namely that of being physically active. I do think this risks becoming a whole new diktat – one that implies that if you’re not physically up-and-at-it in some way, then you’re a failure as an ageing person. This is one of the reasons I’m keen to start photographing older people who may, let’s say, be confined to wheelchairs but who nonetheless are leading very active lives, in some other, less tangible and less obvious way, be it artistic, musical, mental/intellectual or indeed emotional.
If I should ever find myself in a wheelchair (as indeed we all of us might from one day to the next) , I suspect that it will take all of my inner resources to remain engaged with life emotionally. How wonderful it would be to be able to capture in a photograph the essence of a person who might not be leaping over a high jump but who is nonetheless leaping over (or who has clearly leapt over) many, many inner, invisible hurdles. And who is to say which of the two – the hurdle on the athletics track or the hurdle inside one’s head – is the more ‘real’, the more ‘active’, and the greater one to triumph over?
Image: Dorothy McLennan, Ireland, born 1935 and Brita Kiesheyer, Germany, born 1937.
CP: What have you learnt from your work about your own aspirations for later life?
AR: I’ve learnt so much! I’ve learnt about the importance of carrying on doing whatever it is that you love – and that there will always be different ways you can do this. If you can’t carry on being physically active in a sport you’re passionate about, you can always volunteer on the sidelines, maybe in an official capacity, or you can encourage youngsters, or just watch.
I’ve learnt about the importance of community – the masters athletics community is tight-knit and people gain tremendous pleasure from being a part of it and from keeping up with their fellow-athletes’ news. I’ve learnt about the importance of taking what you do seriously – but not too seriously. I watched a group of female competitors in their late 70s comparing the wrinkles on the arms, and roaring with laughter as they did so! I’ve learnt that there are records to be broken, personal achievements to clock and competitions to enter right through till you are 100 years and over. I’ve learnt that it’s never too late to start something new – many masters athletes don’t start until they are in their mid or even late 70s (Olga Kotelko didn’t know anything about track & field until she was 77).
I’ve learnt that illnesses or health issues don’t necessarily mean the end of a physical career: masters athletes have the same strokes, heart attacks, joint replacements and so on as everyone else. They’re just, in the words of one stroke survivor in her late 70s, “too bloody minded” to stop. They battle on through, even if they’re “rattling with pills” as another angioplasty survivor (80) put it. I’ve learnt that you can go on making new friends at no matter what age, and that this is undoubtedly the most important lesson of them all.
CP: What next? What are your plans for the next 12 months?
AR: I might not be travelling so much this year as I have over the past 6 or so since I started this work, but I have one or two projects up my sleeve building on individual stories around some of the people I have already photographed. I don’t want to give too much away – but watch this space!
You can keep up to date with Alex’s latest projects here:
Authored by Dr Cassandra Phoenix, Reader at University of Bath
“The public needs an assist… NOT a lecture” explained Professor Steven Loy at our recent seminar on building sustainable partnerships. Loy, from California State University, Northridge, was referring to the hugely successful 100 Citizens programme – an “assist” to the persistent messages about the need for older adults to be more physically active. The purpose of 100 Citizens is to provide the community with a structured, free exercise program intended to meet or exceed minimum recommendations for physical activity.
“How many years have we been talking about physical inactivity? How many more years will we talk? We have a solution NOW”
Loy is not just talking. He is making things happen – now. And he is not alone. “It starts and ends with the students” he tells us firmly. Through delivery by university students who are studying sport, exercise and health related subjects, 100 Citizens is designed to be affordable, replicable, and sustainable. In fact, it’s not just the 250 people who turn up weekly to exercise in now 6 separate parks across San Fernando and Los Angeles who are benefiting.
A second, but no less important goal of the programme, is to provide students with the opportunity to apply their education and subsequently improve the health of their surrounding communities, while also exposing both the Parks and Public Health arenas to the exercise expertise that many of our students have - an amazing resource that is often unknown and largely untapped.
Loy’s account of the 100 Citizens programme spoke perfectly to the central concern of the ESRC seminar series as reflected in its title “’More of the same is not enough’: New directions in ageing and physical activity’. This model, not just a token gesture of ‘student involvement’ but genuine ‘student ownership’ and empowerment, was certainly a new direction. But it has not come without challenges.
These range from logistical (can Universities timetable their courses so that students are not scheduled to be in class at a time when they’re supposed to be leading a workout session in the park?), monetary (is expertise in exercise and health being demeaned and paid career opportunities limited by offering a service for free?), and personal safety (some of the parks where classes are held are in communities with the highest homicide rates in LA).
The solution to all this? For Loy it was first, understanding what is possible, and then understanding what strengths we have as a community to address the challenges and make the possible happen.
Understanding what’s possible and making the possible happen …
Miles away from the California sunshine, there are endless examples across the UK of communities understanding what is possible and what resources are already embedded within them that can make things happen.
For example, our second speaker, Emma Woolf, introduced us to Birmingham’s Friends of Cotteridge Park that was set up in 1997 after the park was threatened with the loss of services, including its on-site park keeper. Local residents mounted a successful campaign and the park was saved.
This has grown into the Birmingham Open Spaces Forum, a volunteer network organisation bringing together more than 130 member groups who work to optimise the use and maintenance of open spaces. These volunteers, who are also park users, have been working tirelessly to improve the park’s infrastructure and to provide services and free activities that meet the needs of the local community. And doing the work of a volunteer provides the physical activity needed to meet current recommendations, without the need for walls, lycra-clad instructors, or specialised exercise equipment.
Heading momentarily away from park life, and back indoors, our third speaker Olga McBarnett shared her thoughts on Movers & Shakers, a Buckinghamshire based health and wellbeing initiative. Members attend weekly sessions that typically consists of an hour of physical activity, an hour of craft activity, a presentation facilitated by a volunteer or professional and – the most important part, stressed Olga - a healthy lunch in a communal setting. This is as much about social engagement as it is about physical movement, illustrating that older adults thrive in socially interactive environments where the mind, spirit, and body are replenished.
… without any money.
Back to California… The answers to questions about possibility and available resource differ greatly when we include money in the equation. Money, as they say, makes the world go around … and the provision of exercise programmes to those who are, perhaps, least able to afford them (and often most in need) is no exception. “Get funding!”, “Scale up!” Loy, it transpired, has been urged to do on many occasions. “Absolutely not… but we certainly will”, is his response.
I stopped typing. I may even have stopped breathing... just for a moment.
Cue another ‘new direction’ in Loy’s approach to the issue of inactivity (and, dare I say, life as an academic). “Funding”, he said “prevents 100 Citizens from being replicable. Funding enables others to say ‘you did that because you got the funding’” and for Loy, that’s not helpful. Rather, it stops people getting started. It doesn’t make things happen.
So where does ‘cost’ sit with the idea of making things happen? What are the costs? For What? Where and with whom does the cost stop?
Stopping starting, starting and stopping, making things happen, keeping things happening… My thoughts are back to the homeland once again. For those of you in the UK reading this, you’ll know that there’s only one place they can be this week… Little Stoke Parkrun.
But that’s another blog (or ‘Conversation’ offered by Professor Simone Fullager, University of Bath) .
Stay tuned!
The seminar was held on 14th April, 2016 as part of an ESRC Seminar Series on Ageing & Physical Activity. It was hosted by Professor Janice L. Thompson, University of Birmingham.
Authored by Dr Cassandra Phoenix, Reader at University of Bath
I wanted the first post on this blog to set the scene for why it’s important we understand the relationship between physical activity and ageing, and how and why this varies through life. Why do some people remain active whilst others leave it behind in their past? Similarly, why do some older adults embark upon brand new activities later in life when others feel it’s too late? What do younger people think about active older adults and about growing older and being physically active themselves? Above all, why do we care?!
As life expectancy steadily increases, populations across the world are changing. Spurred by advances in health care, an ageing demographic represents societies in which we’re both living and working for longer. A longer life presents a number of physical challenges to staying healthy. It also presents social challenges, not least the challenge for older adults to live with dignity in the face of stereotyping and stigma.
We know that staying physically active can help people keep fit and healthy, and this effect is especially the case as we age. UK guidelines suggest that to experience health benefits over 65s - and indeed all adults - should exercise for at least two and a half hours a week.
Guidelines are useful in communicating ‘what’ we may need to aim for, but they are often far removed from the reality of people’s everyday life and the role that activity plays within that. That’s where research into people’s experiences becomes so important.
By listening to older adults’ stories about physical activity, we’re starting to understand how and why some people are able stay active whilst others aren’t. We want to learn about the challenges people face, how these obstacles vary over time, within different contexts and how they may be overcome. We’re hoping these insights will allow us, as a society, to change the way we think about staying active throughout our lives, as well as providing better support to keep people moving.
But there’s a second, equally important area we need to explore and that’s one of perception.
Most people are fearful of growing older. This is, perhaps unsurprising. As I once read somewhere, ‘ageing will always have the trump card of death’. There’s no getting away from that. Nor is there any escape from the dark realities that many older people face in their final years; loneliness, abuse, poverty, and feelings of being undervalued and overlooked. There are still so many improvements to be made here if we are to age better.
Yet the people I’ve met through my research bring to the table an additional dimension of older age. One that we see and hear far less about in the media. One that can help to challenge the preconceptions of ageing that many people have.
With the help of outdoor spaces, community centres, sport and village halls across the country, cardiac rehab groups (or ‘fitter tickers’), lifelong and ‘L plate’ dancers, sea swimmers in their seventies, and badminton players with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), to name but a few, are showing that for many, older age is immensely dynamic and rewarding. What’s more, they are also showing that there are many different forms and iterations of ‘being physically active’ in older age.
How might these groups help us to change how ageing is perceived? Our research is beginning to shed light on how younger people view growing older, how physically active individuals can help to tackle stereotypes, and how shifts in these perceptions might affect how we all stay active as we make our way through life.
Over the coming weeks I’ll begin to explore some of our findings, and place our studies in context with what’s happening in the broader field of ageing research.
This blog is going to be a place to share thoughts, research and best practice on how older people experience physical activity.
We’ll be delving into the latest findings from studies across the World, exploring changes in policy and guidance, and asking for perspectives from older people themselves.
But wait, who are ‘we’?
I’m Dr Cassandra Phoenix, an academic researcher at the University of Bath, and I’ve spent the last ten years examining what it means to 'age well'. My research uses qualitative methods; I listen to people’s stories and search for common themes amongst them. I love what I do and I’ve met some truly inspirational people doing it.
Joining me will be the rest of the team involved in the ESRC Seminar Series (2014 - 2017) ‘“More of the same is not enough”: New directions in ageing and physical activity’: Professor Brendan Gough; Dr Noreen Orr; Dr Joe Piggin; Professor Janice L. Thompson; Dr Emmanuelle Tulle; Professor Christina Victor and Dr Ben Wheeler along with other experts working in this increasingly important field. I’ll be asking for opinions and insights from charitable organisations who work with older people, speaking to those who shape government policy, and the wider academic community to share their latest thoughts and findings.
Importantly, we’ll also be hearing from older people about how their relationships with staying active have changed as they’ve moved through life.
