HEALTHY AGEING IN LONDON

What does the local elderly community do to keep fit and healthy? Do they think healthy ageing is a problem? Would the members go as far as synthetic biology to keep healthy? These are just some of the questions we answered at the older people’s club at the YMCA club in Camden (London). Read more about how we shared stories over tea and biscuits as well as burning those calories during a Zumba session.

Social Tea

YMCA club is based in Camden and runs health and fitness classes for the local community of different ages. More importantly, YMCA is one of the very few clubs that have an older peoples club which run a variety of classes for the older local community with over 850 members and growing! The members of the older people’s club get to benefit from a variety of specialised classes ranging from Aquacise, Zumba and meditation. All these classes aim to promote healthy ageing, mental wellbeing and social skills. We got to attend one of the social tea sessions, with some of the members of the club. We initially asked some of the members what they thought about a therapy that would make you live healthier for longer to which one of the members replied an enthusiastic YES! I would take it because it’s all about quality of life and length and she famously said “you have to keep stronger for longer”.

The members then told us that they use YMCA club to maintain their healthy lifestyle and that exercise is good for helping them juggle life. One of the older people fitness trainers explained that when she was 47, she was dreading older life and decided that once she got to the age of 50, that she wanted to get fit for 50. She then stopped smoking, ran a marathon and became a qualified instructor. She then explained that she now understands that it’s never too late to take up a healthy lifestyle and after exercise she feel goods and has a smile on my face. The most memorable quote was: “I’m not thinking like an old person, I’d look in the mirror and see an old person, but I don’t feel like one”

Another member then told us that they do not want to be indoors all day, hence why YMCA gives them the motivation to be active and healthy and that “YMCA is a unique gym for the elderly, other gyms are full of muscular men and young kids, but this gym has a special program”. We also discussed that there is a clear lack in gyms that run special programmes for the elderly community and that its often at a high cost and trainers don’t treat the elderly with the correct care that they need.

Zumba: Young vs Older generation

We wanted to see some of the activities that the older people members do at the centre, so we participated in the older member’s club Zumba class. The session can be seen below, where Chichi and Hana from UCL iGEM participated. As you can see the elderly taking part can’t take the smiles off their face, and our team members look like they are finding it hard to keep up! Just goes to show that a healthy lifestyle, even when you are older benefits you and can improve your quality of life greatly. Now it’s time to get back to the gym! Below you can see the class with our team members taking part.

Outcome: what did we learn?

We believe that more clubs should have programmes in place for the older people in society, that will greatly benefit their health and wellbeing. We now understand the impact that being healthy can have when you are older, its clearly evident that a better quality of life is desired and the elderly at this club would agree to go as far as synthetic biology to keep healthy! We have also learnt that the image people portray of older people – to be slow, fragile is often a misconception. We have just witnessed a fantastic example of what the older generation are doing to keep healthy and active at later life!