Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen

The article discusses the importance of physical activity and social engagement for the elderly population. It focuses on a recreational activity, cardio drumming, that can improve the mental and physical health of the elderly and promote social relationships. The article also discusses the benefits of the activity, intended beneficiaries, and goals of the program.

Running Head: RECREATION AND WELLNESS MANAGEMENT AMONGST SENIOR
CITIZEN
Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
Executive Summary
The aging population is often considered as a social and economic liability. The lack of
physical activity renders these elderly people physically inactive and hence, they become
dependent on others. Their narrowed social relations also has an impact on their health. All
these problems impact the well-being of the aged population and they fall a victim to severe
health issues like cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and malfunctioning
of the kidneys. This requires effective programs to ensure physical activity of this community
and involves social engagement. This article discusses a recreational activity, cardio
drumming for the old aged people. This activity boosts the mental as well as the physical
health of an elderly person and also ensures in making and sustaining social relationships
therefore, improving the quality of life and life expectancy of the individual.
Table of Content

2Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
s
Introduction...........................................................................................................................3
Discussion.............................................................................................................................4
The activity selected is Cardio Drumming........................................................................4
Benefits of the activity in the health outcome of the community......................................4
Intended Beneficiaries of the selected activity..................................................................5
Rationale for older adults in the selected activity.............................................................5
Intended Goals of the Program..........................................................................................7
Health outcome of the program on elderly people..........................................................10
Sources required by the program.....................................................................................10
Measurement of the success of the program...................................................................11
Limitations to the program..............................................................................................11
Summation...........................................................................................................................11
References...........................................................................................................................13

3Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
Introduction
Leisure and recreation should be considered as an important aspect of life as it helps
to manage stress and combat depression. It is well known that a balanced mental health
promotes overall physical well-being. Leisure and recreation activities may be emotional,
cognitive, physical, social or spiritual in nature. Senior citizens who are health conscious get
involved in a range of leisure activities like cards and gardening. Some are engaged in
contemporary activities like sports participation. The reality of the positive effects of being
physically active at leisure should be acknowledged in this sedentary era (Heo et al, 2013).
This article deals with a recreational activity that is cardio drumming. This activity
exploites workout of the entire body and whole brain. It develops the sensory and motor
reflexes and promotes awareness in kinesthetic. There are numerous other benefits involving
both physiological and psychological ones and also those found in the early aerobics fitness.
Drumming not only involves coordination of muscle movement but also increases the
neurological connection between the right and the left brain hemispheres. It stimulates the
alpha brain wave activity that promotes the improved working of the sensory and the motor
nerves in the brain. All these together improves the standard of living of an individual and
increases the life span also. In this article, there is a detailed review of the impact of
recreational activity on the elderly people.

4Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
Discussion
The activity selected is Cardio Drumming
Cardio drumming is also known as pound workout. It essentially involves workout of
the entire body. Successful cardio drumming can help in burning approximately 900 calories.
Cardio drumming is a trending fitness regime which exploits fitness with creativity. This can
be done by people of all age groups. The concept of cardio drumming came from the
organization that twined music and fitness, Drum Alive that ensures increase in heart rate
with effective calorie burning. This is a recreational activity that uses drumsticks, an exercise
ball with a ball stand. The exercise ball is used and the floor is assumed as the drum and
mixing it with enjoyable moves is all about cardio drumming. This activity incorporates a
rhythm into the exercises performed. It breaks the monotony and makes the workout
enjoyable and unstoppable.
Benefits of the activity in the health outcome of the community
Cardio drumming ensures wellness in physical and mental health condition and it
promotes weight loss in obese people. It promises entertainment along with cardio workout.
Since the equipments required for cardio drumming is very minimal so if required can be
done at home. The rhythmic signal helps in retraining the brain post a brain stroke or a neural
impairment. It is an excellent recreational activity in terms of imparting coordination of hands
and help combat hand tremors. This also boosts the immune system. As the name suggests,
cardio drumming ensures enhanced efficiency in blood flow and improves the heart rate, it
causes exercise of the brain cells also. Cardio drumming has a positive impact on the mental
health. A sound mental state contributes greatly to the physical well-being of people. It
improves the energy level of individuals and helps in increasing the concentration. The cardio
exercises conditions and strengthens the vital muscles. The drumming makes a person feel

5Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
happy, uplifts the mood and reduces the mental stress. Drumming ensures the increase
incapability to endure pain. It plays an important role in cognitive thinking because it
increases the level of endorphin secretion.
Intended Beneficiaries of the selected activity
This pound workout is ideal for all ages. It gives a creative approach to the exercise
genre making it enjoyable. It is effective for obese people as physical activity is important to
breakthrough sedentary lifestyle and reduce the health risks of the individual. It also targets
people of old age because usually these people lack physical activity and are often targets to
mental stress and depression. Cardio drumming is a complete solution for this community as
it combats mental stress and involves physical activity as well. A healthy mental health
promotes a healthy physical health also. It prevents the onset of various other comorbid
illness.
Rationale for older adults in the selected activity
Western cultures have a trend of considering the aging population as liabilities in the
economic as well as the social aspect (Wilmoth and Ferraro, 2013). The Australian
population of elderly people, both male and female are increasing gradually. The older people
of age 65 and above are increasing in a steady rate over the last century (ABS, 2017). The
increase in the life expectancy is the reason for this increase. There may be other factors also
which include, low birth rates, higher healthcare strategies and standards and decreased death
rates. According to ABS survey it is seen that in 1911 there was one elderly individual
amongst twenty five people. But the contribution of elderly people in the overall population
increased to 14% in 2011 and then to 16% in 2016. The figure below shows the progressive
statistics of elderly people in Australia.

6Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
Fig 1: Proportion of Older people, 1911 to 2016 (ABS, 2016)
It is opined by Milanović et al., 2013 that in the process of aging both men and
women exhibit decreased physical activity and this impacts functional fitness as well. This
affected several physiological factors like decreased muscle strength in the limbs, body-fat
content, flexibility, endurance, dexterity and symptoms of fatigue. Hence with increase in age
there is reduced physical fitness that disables the old aged community to partake in the
normal day to day activities.
In the life span of an individual the muscle mass and simultaneously the strength gets
reduced by approximately 30%-50% in the ages in between 30 to 80 (Greco et al., 2014). The
main cause of reduction in the muscle mass is due to decreased muscle fibre and atrophy of
the same (McPhee et al., 2016). The cardiorespiratory system also gets affected and an
evident decrease in the aerobic capacity is observed after 40 years of age and a significant
deterioration at the age of 60 (Chang and Lin, 2015). Therefore decrease in the maximal
oxygen uptake in the elderly people can negatively impact all the aerobic activities like
running, brisk walking (Beck et al., 2016). It is considered as a consequence of decreased
strength in the muscles, imbalance and lack of flexibility. This adversely hampers the
independent healthy lifestyle.

7Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
It is observed that with increase in age, older people tend to show decline in physical
and cognitive functions. They have a narrowed social network also (Chen & Feeley, 2014).
According to literature social relationships have an impact on the health of an individual
(Watt et al., 2014). Reduced social relationships can reduce the quality of life and well-being
of the older individuals. Cardio drumming is a modifiable factor that aid in developing social
relationships. Enhanced physical health boosts the immune system and prevent heart attacks.
This cardio drumming activity helps in restoration of physical and social resources. A
comorbid factor of old age is dementia. Cardio drumming prevents and sometimes delays the
onset of dementia symptoms in old age.
According to the table in figure 2 various physiological parameters were measured in
between a training session to assess the fitness level of the participants. The assessment
measured an improved VO2 max (maximum oxygen uptake). It summarizes the change in the
physiological factors in the course of the assignment (Chapman et al, 2013). A good VO2 max
level denotes a good fitness of the body. Hence, higher the VO2 max greater the fitness.
Fig 2: Impact of Physical Activity on Older Adults (Paterson, Jones and Rice, 2007)
Intended Goals of the Program
The life expectancy of elderly people is expected to increase which would lead to an
increase in their number to 22% of the total population by 2050 (Nations, 2015). The average

8Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
terminal age, in 1980 for both male and females were 69.8 and 77.5 years respectively while
it is expected that due to life expectancy the average terminal age may be 75 years for males
and 83.1 for females (Garatachea et al., 2015). The muscle function loss and degradation of
muscle structure which is correlated to ageing can be prevented by increase in the physical
activity. And therefore, increased physical activity will lead to an independent healthy
lifestyle enhancing the functional fitness.
Recreational and leisure activities boost the social interactions immensely. This is
very important because these interactions make the individual feel valued and avert the sense
of isolation. Social isolation is a very common symptom observed in elderly people. This
feeling of isolation can have negative impact on the health of the individual both mentally
and psychologically. These elderly people require more attention and long term care. They
give them an opportunity to learn new things also.
The cardio drumming event is a recreational and leisure activity that will last for 24
weeks program. The program promises an individual guide and better management of the
physiological and psychological health of the aged community. The program will set a goal
and measure the improvement level of each individual.
The aim of the cardio drumming is to improve the quality of life of an individual. It
can be done at all ages starting from 10 years to 90 years. It enhances the physical,
psychological and social life of a person. Cardio drumming exploits the dynamic movements
in the aerobic dance with the rhythms of the drum. Physical recreation is more crucial.
Individuals engaged in physical activity has reduced risk of severe health complications like
diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension and simultaneously high blood pressure and colon
cancer. Recreational programs positively impact mental health promoting cognitive thinking.
Evidences claim that elderly people engaged in these activities have better efficiency to

9Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
handle stressful situation and frustrations (Stults-Kolehmainen and Sinha, 2014). These
activities educate them that social activities are important and available (Chang, 2014).
The program has been planned using medical evidences that old aged individuals are
susceptible to various mental illness the onset of which is stress. Mentally stressed individual
are inclined to depression. Some people can even be susceptible to dementia. Mental illness
can have a negative impact on well-being of an individual. So the health deteriorates and also
reduces the quality of life. The social life of elderly people is narrowed down. This program
helps in establishing sound social relationships. The essence of this programme is to address
all these needs effectively. The program would assess the outcomes the individuals achieve
and educate them making them well equipped to lead a quality life.
Fig 3: Tested Conceptual Model (Chang, Wray and Lin 2014)
An efficacious attempt to help elder people to perpetuate an independent active and
healthy life is an immediate requirement since the old aged people have double the number of
disabilities and multiple physical limitations compared to individuals less than 60 years (Rikli
and Jones, 2013). Physical activity plays an important role in sustaining functional fitness
which is directly correlated to quality of life and independent living. If elderly individuals
does not engage in physical activity to can expose the elderly people to immediate risks of
reduced muscle mass, 40% reduced mobility of the joints and 10% to 40% reduced mobility
of other body parts and about 30% reduction of muscle strength pertaining to decreased
muscle mass (Giné-Garriga et al, 2014).

10Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
Health outcome of the program on elderly people
Functional fitness of an individual essentially illustrates the ability of an individual to
undertake the daily activities independently. Physical activity is crucial for independent
living, prevents chronic health issues, deals onset of diabetes and can prevent various risk of
cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This reduces the quality of life. Recreational and leisure
activities like cardio drumming bridge social relationships and health. And both are
interrelated. They allow the elderly people to meet and engage with new people (Heo et al.,
2013). This combats social isolation. These activities inculcate a sense of involvement in
them and also helps them to be active. Social activities stimulate the activities in the brain. . It
is a creative approach that involves continuous physical movement of the body with rhythmic
flow. It can be categorised as a sensory motor program also which promotes effective
cognition. It develops muscle memory (kinaesthetic) and sensory motor reflexes. This
recreational activity provides psychological and physiological benefits. Senior citizens who
have participated in recreational activities evidently reported more satisfaction in life (Pahor
et al., 2014).
Sources required by the program
The funding for the programme will be supported by the Healthy Communities
Initiatives and Medicaid. Medicaid is a combined state and federal funding program that
provides long term health insurance to elderly people. Palliative care specialists and
nutritionists will be teamed up for this activity. The palliative care specialists would interact
with the people individually to understand health issues of everyone in the community. The
program would require the involvement of local gymnasiums. There would be exciting offers
to promote the program. That would include discounting memberships. Involvement of local
fruit vendors and cantering personnel is required for promoting healthy diet and foods post
the sessions for the six months.

11Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
Measurement of the success of the program
Assessing the success rate of the program is an integral part. It would involve
accelerometry and direct calorimetry. Direct calorimetry measures the metabolic rate of the
individual quantitatively whereas accelerometry measures the physical activity. Measuring
the activities of the individuals before the start of the program, in between and at the end of
the program will help us to assess the improvement of the individuals. Updating the
respective individuals with their improvement well help them to self motivate themselves and
a healthy living increases life span of an individual. Hence, this assessment will help in
promoting the success of cardio drumming. There will be perceived measures for assessment
that would involve questionnaires, interviews and surveys on the program (Aytur et al.,
2015).
Limitations to the program
This fitness regime is not as effective as the normal cardiovascular exercises. Normal
Cardiovascular exercises involve more movement of the body. Involvement and socialising is
a major issue in old age. Complex health conditions due to sedentary early life may prevent
old age people to take part in such recreational activities like cardio drumming. Vague
notions can also play a role in participants not taking part in physical activity like shortness of
breath may be deciphered by patients as a symptom of a disease. Lack of sound education on
the role of leisure and recreational activities may lead to non participation in the event as
well.
Summation
Leisure and recreation activities help in coordination and management of social
relationships and health. Both social relationships and health goes hand in hand. If an
individual has positive social relationships then they tend to get more involved in leisure and

12Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
recreational activity and greater involvement in such activities boosts the health of the
individual. These activities boost identity management of older people. Leisure and
recreation activities is directly proportional to the quality of life. This enhances the well-
being of these elder generation and increases the physical and mental strength.
It can be inferred from this article and the consecutive literature involved in it that
physical activity indeed impacts the well-being of the old age people. Cardio drumming can
be concluded as a very creative approach to aerobic exercises. It helps in improving the
standard of living of the elderly people. This activity helps them in coordination of the motor
and sensory activities of the brain and helps in cognitive thinking as well as improvement in
coordination of limb movement.

13Recreation and Wellness Management amongst Senior Citizen
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