National Seniors Day
Today is National Seniors Day! Seniors are integral members of the sport and recreation community, with much skill to offer as athletes and coaches. Sport and physical activity programs provide older adults with opportunities to develop strength, build social networks and travel to new environments.
Benefits of Masters sport
Participation in Masters sport provides a number of physical, psychological and social benefits for athletes, including strength and conditioning, positive perspectives on aging, and strong friendships. Learn more in the SIRCuit.
Giving Due Deliberation to Masters Athletes: The Time has Come
Paradoxically, Masters sport is equally celebrated and ignored. Masters athletes are celebrated because they are motivated, goal-oriented, and determined to thrive at ages when sport participation has traditionally waned – they defeat stereotypes and allow us to rethink possibilities. Yet Masters athletes (MAs) can also be an “after-thought” in sport organizations, receiving scarce attention. Our…
Winter 2021 SIRCuit
The Winter 2021 SIRCuit is now available! For many, the new year presents an opportunity to set new goals, refine behaviours, or let go of something that is holding them back. This edition of the SIRCuit provides takes a deep dive into self-compassion, athlete identification, relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S), engaging masters athletes, and social learning…
Promoting sports participation: Exploring physical activity patterns and role models of aging amongst older persons
Project Summary Sport involvement in Canada drops precipitously as we age. Recent Canadian data indicate that participation rates are highest in young Canadians, with 54% between the ages of 15 and 19 taking part in sporting activity. By age 55, however, only 17% of individuals are engaging in sport (Statistics Canada, 2013). Participation rates in…
Aging in the information age: An ethnographic study of video gaming in Canadian retirement centres
Project Summary This research explored the use of sport-based video games (or ‘exergames’) in activity programs for older persons. In recent years, games like ‘Wii Bowling’ for the Nintendo Wii gaming system have become popular in seniors’ centres in Canada, among other countries. The objectives for this research were as follows: The main conclusions arising…
Participation in Masters Sport
For many sport organizations, older adults represent an untapped cohort of potential members. Research on Masters athletes points to the importance of both a social environment and competitive opportunities in facilitating participation.
The relationship between sport, physical activity, and social engagement: A profile of Canadian seniors
Project Summary Models of successful aging (SA) encourage a continued engagement with life, which research literature refers to as a diverse set of activities including productive (e.g., housework), social (e.g., visiting friends), passive (e.g., reading), and active leisure (e.g., playing a sport) pursuits. It is widely accepted that engaging in life promotes a more meaningful…
Tai Chi (TC) for older adults: Improving physical and psychological health and identifying and overcoming cultural/ethnic barriers to participation
Project Summary Tai Chi (TC), a traditional Chinese exercise, has been shown to have several health benefits. In general, TC is a widely practiced, well received exercise in large populations in China. Such generally positive attitudes towards the exercise result from a long history of practice in Chinese culture. The current literature has identified some…
Aging expectations and physical activity behaviours
Project Summary A developing area of research focuses on ‘successful aging’, which has the central objective of discovering significant predictors of optimal health in later life so that risks of disease and disablement can be targeted and reduced. From this research, there is evidence indicating beliefs that older adults have of their own aging process…