Effects of regular exercise on functional fitness of community elderly

Office of Physical Education, Asia University, 41354 Taichung City, Taiwan

^* Corresponding author: vivian@asia.edu.tw

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the effect and the retention effect of regular exercise on functional fitness of community elderly. Total 65 community elderly aged above 65 (77.03±6.41 years old) who voluntarily participate in this study are selected as the research subjects. Functional fitness pretest is practiced before the regular exercise intervention, the posttest is preceded in the 12th week, and the retention test is preceded in the 24th week. The results show that the functional fitness test, after the 12-week regular exercise intervention, reveals that males make significant progress in upper/lower limb strength, cardiorespiratory endurance, static balance, upper limb flexibility, agility and dynamic balance and females appear remarkable progress in upper limb strength, cardiorespiratory endurance, static balance, upper limb flexibility, agility and dynamic balance. Regular exercise could remarkably promote functional fitness of the elderly. In this case, designing community fitness programs as long-term continuous activity would promote and maintain fitness.