"We tend to assume that weakness and sickness is a normal and irreversible part of old age, but Gym Tonic is here to prove that something can be done about it," said Mr Ken Tan, managing director of PulseSync, the IT company that helped structure Gym Tonic.

12 Dec 2017

The Straits Times – More places for seniors to get strength training as gym programme opens to the public

SINGAPORE – Slipping on a puddle of water and hurting her hips left 97-year-old Lau Soon Siang physically very weak and in pain last year.

After 12 weeks of strength training, however, the housewife has regained her muscle strength and balance. She can now resume her daily walks and go to the coffee shop to chat with friends.

More people can benefit from Gym Tonic – the strength training for seniors aged 55 or older that helped Madam Lau – when the programme is extended to the public at eight locations by next year, the Lien Foundation announced on Tuesday (Dec 12). The programme has been available to only residents in nursing homes and eldercare centres.

The public can go to ActiveSG Gym@Our Tampines Hub, Care Corner Senior Activity Centre (62B Toa Payoh), Methodist Welfare Services Senior Activity Centre (Fernvale) and St Hilda’s Community Services, which will open this year, and Touch Community Wellness Hub and Bishan Community Club next year. Two other locations that have already set up Gym Tonic will be open to the public too – Man Fut Tong-Hoe Yuen Hoe Senior Care Centre next year and Peacehaven Community Hub this year.

The Lien Foundation will also select 300 seniors aged 65 and above for free Gym Tonic trials.

Joining fees vary from centre to centre and range from less than $10 to $50 a month. Fees for assessment of physical conditions range from $30 to $80.

The programme consists of 12 weeks of strength training for seniors using air-powered equipment from Finland that is gentler on the joints. There are also nutrition talks, and pre-workout health assessments that track seniors’ progress.

The seniors can tap a card on the exercise equipment, which will adjust automatically to accommodate their individual fitness levels. This data is then stored in a digital cloud for them to look back on.

The 30-minute sessions, conducted twice a week, aim to increase seniors’ muscle mass and make them less frail or prone to frailty.

Frailty, as measured by the Fried frailty criteria, sees seniors in three categories: frail, pre-frail and robust. Indicators of frailty include unintentional weight loss, weakness, exhaustion, slow walking speed and low physical activity. Pre-frail seniors have two or three of those symptoms while robust seniors have none.

After the three-month programme, seniors can stay on for weekly maintenance sessions, just like Madam Lau has been doing for the past five months.

“Initially, I had no idea at all what the odd and new equipment I saw in the gym was for. But I just chose to follow my friends who did group gym sessions there and enjoyed it,” she said at a press briefing in Care Corner Senior Activity Centre (62B Toa Payoh) on Tuesday.

“The pain in my hips and legs has gone, and I can fit into the pants I’m wearing today even though I struggled to put them on before,” she added.

A study by researchers from the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine showed that half the elderly in Singapore are frail – and frailty comes with risks of depression, cognitive impairment, poor physical functions and premature death.

A study in April this year of 396 seniors who went through Gym Tonic showed that close to half of them who were frail managed to improve, reversing their frailty or pre-frailty.

“We tend to assume that weakness and sickness is a normal and irreversible part of old age, but Gym Tonic is here to prove that something can be done about it,” said Mr Ken Tan, managing director of PulseSync, the IT company that helped structure Gym Tonic.

Around 2,000 seniors have been actively using the equipment in 21 nursing homes and eldercare centres since Gym Tonic started in 2015. By 2019, about 4,500 seniors will have access to such machines.

The eight locations open to the public will target 1,400 new users.

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