Recreational Physical Activity Program for Health Promotion for Overweight elderly

The study aims to address and test the training determinants of the recreational physical activity program to promote health for healthy elderly people, including studying the validity of the training content of aerobic activities appropriate to their physical and emotional condition, and its application protocol, especially in the case of their suffering from excess weight. To verify the validity of the research methodology on the proposed physical activity program, a random sample of Saudi men (n=28, 58.55 ± 1.09 years) who do not practice sports activities and suffer from first-degree obesity (=BMI 30.87 ± 0.98 kg/m2) was selected. They were distributed into two equal groups, one of which was an experimental group to which the aerobic training program was applied based on the training determinants of the recommended physical activity program for the elderly, which included "floor exercises, pedaling on a bicycle ergometric, walking in its various forms using a treadmill, free walking, power walking, and step aerobics", in a way that achieves the systematic employment of gradual partial isolation of weight in the selected physical activities according to the recommended training protocol for a period of 8 weeks, and the other was a control group that practices daily office work burdens in the same time frame.
The results indicate the scientific formulation of the training determinants of the recreational physical activity program to promote health for overweight Saudi elderly, and the significant improvement in favor of the experimental group in the level of health-related physical fitness as measured by the European Fitness Battery for Adults, in addition to the positive change in body composition measurements as a result of their application of the aerobic training protocol based on these training determinants. Accordingly, the study recommended that the recreational aerobic training program based in its planning on the guidelines, recommendations and training considerations for physical activity for the elderly be considered an ideal and safe way to maintain and promote health for those over the age of fifty who live an inactive lifestyle.