Over 75s a “major opportunity” for gyms and leisure centres

One of the most encouraging trends in British physical activity is happening among its oldest adults.

Sport England’s latest Active Lives Adult Survey shows 44.3% of people aged 75 and over are now active, up from 42.8% a year earlier. Among 55 to 74-year-olds, the proportion meeting recommended activity levels has also climbed, reaching 64.3%. On a general observation, how many older adults do you see taking part in Park Run events, marathons and even the likes of Spartan Races? Loads. For gyms and leisure centres, that should look less like an ageing-population challenge and more like a major opportunity.

“We know now, that keeping moving is a crucial contributor to healthy ageing,” says Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive of the Centre for Ageing Better. “I say ‘now’ because the research and the associated messaging have not always been this way. People over 60 now will have grown up in a society where the importance of ‘rest’ was the prescription for many ailments. I can still recall that someone with osteoarthritis or back pain would have been told to stop moving – not keep moving!”

The Health and Social Care Committee’s Healthy Ageing report, published earlier this year, called for better use of leisure and physical activity facilities and their workforces to help older people remain active. It also highlighted exercise programmes targeting strength, frailty, falls, and independence.

That potentially broadens what an older person’s gym membership represents. It can provide strength and balance training, mobility, social connection and the confidence to remain independent. And yet many people see over 75s activity as exercise for exercise’s sake.

Operators able to create welcoming environments for people entering a gym for the first time at 60, 70 or 80 could therefore be serving one of fitness’s most important future markets.