BYU Students Put Focus on Senior Fitness

BYU Students Put Focus on Senior Fitness
For some, it's a glimpse of the future, for others, it's a glimpse of a longer life.

A group of Brigham Young University students has come up with some new ideas to encourage older Americans to stay fit by designing exercise equipment that caters to their demographic.

Students visited senior centers, talked to exercise-minded individuals and went into exercise rooms to see how their target audience used exercise equipment.

They focused on trying to solve problems that older exercisers face using equipment intended for people half their age.

Students found that existing in-home equipment is often too heavy, too complex, uncomfortable - and sometimes unsafe - for older people.

"We talked to to a 72-year-old woman about what she would use exercise equipment for," said Jessica Stacey, an industrial design major who participated in the project.

She said for that woman, the equipment was too bulky and she didn't like having to go down stairs to the basement where she kept it because it was unsightly.

The woman also found exercise boring at home, Stacey said.

Stacey and her group noted that in one exercise room they visited, a seat had been removed from an exerciser and a normal chair put in its stead to improve comfort.

As students began designing equipment that would appeal to the older demographic, they sought to combine