But ElderFIT is designed to be more than a place to find a personal trainer. It is a family focused approach to helping seniors become stronger, more mobile and more independent while giving their families a better way to participate in their health and fitness journey.
The idea behind ElderFIT is simple: older adults should have access to fitness professionals who understand the unique challenges of aging, while their families should have resources to help support their loved one's health. For many seniors, maintaining strength and mobility can be an important part of remaining active and continuing to live independently at home.
What Is ElderFIT and Why Was It Created?
What is ElderFIT at its core? It is a platform built specifically around the needs of seniors and the families who care about them.
Many older adults do not want to go to a gym. Transportation can be difficult, unfamiliar equipment can create safety concerns, and some seniors simply feel more comfortable exercising in their own homes.
At the same time, adult children often want their parents to exercise but may not know where to find a qualified professional who understands the needs of an older adult.
ElderFIT was created to help solve both problems. Instead of asking seniors to adapt to the traditional fitness industry, ElderFIT brings in home fitness for seniors directly to them.
Why Strength Training Matters as We Age
Exercise is important throughout life, but maintaining muscle and physical function becomes particularly important as we get older. The National Institute on Aging notes that strength training for seniors can help older adults maintain strength, slow the loss of muscle mass and make everyday activities such as getting out of a chair, climbing stairs and carrying groceries easier. It also notes that strength training can help prevent falls and fall related injuries.
The CDC recommends that adults age 65 and older include strength training for seniors at least two days each week, along with aerobic and balance activities. Regular physical activity can help older adults maintain independence and improve quality of life.
That is an important reason ElderFIT focuses so heavily on connecting seniors with trainers who understand strength, balance, mobility and functional fitness.
What Does ElderFIT Do?
ElderFIT is an online platform that connects seniors and their families with local personal trainers who provide fitness sessions in the senior's home.
The platform will show all of the available trainers in a pre-defined radius of a zip code entered by a customer. Trainer profiles are organized based on proximity to the zip code and allow for an easy review of each trainer’s background, including their experience, certifications, specialties and approach to working with older adults.
The senior or family member can then choose a trainer who appears to be a good fit and request a session based on the trainer's availability. The trainer comes directly to the senior's home and provides individualized exercise based on the senior's goals, abilities and current fitness level.
This makes in-home personal trainers for seniors accessible without requiring an older adult to drive to a gym or navigate an unfamiliar fitness facility.
How Is ElderFIT Different From Other Personal Trainer Platforms?
One of the biggest differences between ElderFIT and other platforms is focus. Many personal training marketplaces are designed to serve almost anyone looking for a trainer. They also tend to serve a younger audience. ElderFIT, on the other hand, is focused specifically on older adults and their families.
That matters because training a senior can require a very different approach from training a younger, healthy adult. A senior may be dealing with reduced muscle strength, balance concerns, limited mobility, joint problems, recovery from surgery, previous injuries, fear of falling or chronic health conditions.
A qualified trainer needs to understand how to adapt exercise appropriately. ElderFIT focuses on trainers who have appropriate professional credentials and experience working with older adults, making it easier for families to find someone who understands senior fitness rather than simply finding someone who happens to have an open appointment.
ElderFIT is also the only personal trainer platform that helps the families of seniors use fitness as part of their caregiving strategy that supports their senior relatives. Many of our older Americans in the Boomer generation are now in their 70s and approaching the 80s. That means many of them are beginning to experience declines in their physical and cognitive abilities.
Families of these Boomers are seeking new ways to fill in the gap created by the healthcare system. They see fitness as a way to augment their caregiving strategy. Unlike physical therapy, which is designed to rehabilitate a specific injury, ElderFIT trainers help ensure that senior family members can stay as healthy and independent in their homes for as long as possible.
Why In Home Fitness For Seniors Can Be a Better Option
Getting to a gym requires transportation, planning and energy. Once there, a senior may encounter intimidating equipment, crowded spaces or exercises that aren't appropriate for their current abilities.
In home fitness for seniors removes many of those barriers. A trainer can work with a senior in a familiar environment using appropriate exercises and equipment. The workout can be adapted to the senior's available space, physical capabilities and goals.
There can also be a psychological benefit. A senior doesn't have to become a "gym person" to become stronger. They can exercise in an environment where they already feel comfortable, which may make developing a consistent routine easier.
What Do ElderFIT Trainers Help Seniors Do?
Senior fitness isn't simply about lifting weights or walking on a treadmill. A good program should help seniors become better at the physical activities they need to perform every day.
That might include standing up from a chair, walking more confidently, climbing stairs, getting in and out of a car, carrying groceries, improving balance, building upper and lower body strength, improving mobility and maintaining endurance.
For some seniors, the goal isn't to become an athlete. It is to remain capable of living independently.
That distinction is central to senior fitness. The purpose of exercise can be to preserve the physical abilities that make everyday life possible.
Who Are ElderFIT Trainers?
Finding a trainer is easy. Finding the right trainer for an older adult can be much harder.
ElderFIT carefully selects and vets trainers in every city in which they operate. Our trainers are certified by reputable training organizations like NASM, ISSA, NCSF, and more.
We also accept trainers who have diplomas in kinesiology, exercise science and physical therapy. While we are not a physical therapy service and do not work as a healthcare entity, we have quite a few trainers who bring solid background in that domain in order to provide their fitness training to our senior customers.
In short, ElderFIT focuses on connecting seniors with trainers who have appropriate professional credentials and experience working with older adults. Depending on the trainer, that experience may include working with seniors who have balance and mobility limitations, arthritis, osteoporosis, Parkinson's disease, dementia, previous surgeries, joint replacements or reduced strength.
How Does ElderFIT Help Families?
This is one of the most important parts of the ElderFIT model.
What is ElderFIT beyond a trainer matching service? It is also a way for families to become more involved in a senior's fitness journey.
Family involvement in a senior’s care is increasing. Pew Research Center reported in 2022 that about 23% of U.S. adults were part of the so-called Sandwich Generation, meaning they had a parent age 65 or older while also raising a child or financially supporting an adult child. Among Americans in their 40s, the figure was 54%.
Families increasingly need practical ways to help aging parents stay healthy and independent, particularly when they cannot be physically present every day.
ElderFIT's Family Account is designed for that purpose. Family members can receive trainer notes and exercise session alerts and follow a senior's progress through the Functional Fitness Test Tracker.
An adult child who lives across the country may not be able to attend every workout, but they can still have greater visibility into their parent's fitness activity and progress using the ElderFIT platform.
A Wrap Around Senior Fitness Care Approach
This is where ElderFIT goes beyond traditional trainer matching. The ElderFIT model brings together three important participants:
The senior. The trainer. The family.
The trainer provides the professional fitness guidance. The senior participates in the exercise program. Family members can provide encouragement, support and accountability while staying informed about the senior's progress through the trainer notes on the ElderFIT platform.
This creates what we describe as a wrap-around fitness care approach to helping seniors as they age.
ElderFIT isn't medical care. We don’t replace a physician, physical therapist or other healthcare professionals. Instead, we complement the healthcare and caregiving resources a senior already has.
Our training services reinforce ongoing care seniors receive from all manner of healthcare providers. We also work alongside in-home caregiving providers who look after the daily needs of seniors.
Our customers use ElderFIT in league with other resources that families use to ensure senior relatives can regain the strength, balance and confidence they need to remain in their homes safely.
What Is the Functional Fitness Test Tracker?
The Functional Fitness Test available on the ElderFIT platform gives trainers and families another way to monitor changes in a senior's physical capabilities over time.
For an older adult, progress isn't always about losing weight or changing body composition. Progress might mean standing from a chair more easily, walking farther, improving balance or performing everyday movements with greater confidence. Our Functional Fitness Test provides the baseline needed to track a senior’s progress across 8 different physical movements.
Those changes can be meaningful indicators that exercise is helping a senior maintain or improve their strength and overall mobility.
Is ElderFIT a Medical or Healthcare Service?
No. ElderFIT is a fitness and personal training platform, not a medical provider. ElderFIT trainers do not diagnose or treat medical conditions. That means that ElderFIT does not accept insurance and is a private-pay network of trainers.
Seniors with significant medical conditions, recent injuries or other health concerns should consult their healthcare professional about appropriate exercise before beginning a new fitness program. A trainer can then work within the senior's capabilities and provide appropriate fitness guidance.
In this way, senior fitness can become one part of a broader healthy aging strategy that may also include medical care, nutrition, physical therapy, caregiving and other forms of support.
How Do You Get Started With ElderFIT?
What is ElderFIT if you want to use it? The process is straightforward.
First, go to our homepage here: www.ElderFIT.app.
Then enter your ZIP code to find trainers serving your area. You can review trainer profiles, including their experience, certifications and specialties. Next, choose someone who appears to be a good fit for the senior's goals and needs, select an available appointment and complete the booking request.
Once training begins, families can create a Family Account if they want to receive session alerts, trainer notes and progress information.
The goal is to make finding in-home personal trainers for seniors easier for older adults and the people who care about them.
Any further questions? Contact us at 1-844-353-3734 should you need any assistance in signing up a family member or loved one with an ElderFIT trainer!