Seniors swap sofas for sweatpants

Physical, mental needs

Yu Chenjie, marketing director of Shangti Health Technology, a Shanghai-headquartered company that focuses on improving the health of seniors, said that the group's health is attracting increasing attention from society as the elderly population grows.

Ageing is often accompanied by physical deterioration and chronic illness, leaving many older people feeling weak and unhappy. Also, many are lonely because their children work and live in other cities, according to Yu.

"That means this group of people has a strong need both for physical and mental health. Gyms designed especially for them, where they can do sports safely and also talk with their peers, can meet their needs well," she said.

A report released in 2019 by the research center of Cheetah Mobile, an internet company in Beijing, showed that nine out of 10 people age 49 and older were in the habit of doing exercise (by which they meant they engaged in some form of sports at least once a week).

Their main form of exercise was jogging and the most popular venues were parks and playgrounds close to their home communities, according to the report.

However, few found professional fitness clubs attractive because of the high cost, it said.

Despite that, there are still some "pioneers" like Shen who visit gyms as frequently as, or even more than, younger people and gain great benefits from regular exercise.

Zhang Xiufang, who retired from a local government department in Shanghai five years ago, is one such example.

Believing that older people should exercise under professional guidance to ensure safety, she bought membership at a fitness club in the city's Changning district three years ago.

Over that time, she has tried many different activities offered by the club and finally decided to focus on Pilates.

Now practicing three or four times a week, the 65-year-old said the discipline is particularly suitable for older people because "it trains the muscles in a mild way".

Long-term activity has helped her lose 10 kilograms and alleviated her backache, a niggling discomfort that has bothered her since she was young, Zhang said.

"I feel much more energetic than before," she added.