Recreational physical activity with older adults: stimulating physical-psychological condition beyond age

Abstract

The research responds to care for the elderly through physical recreation in the community and the natural environment, as part of the Educational Physical Recreation Project for a culture of free time use. The scientific problem refers to the insufficient alternatives for physical-recreational activities to stimulate the physical-psychological condition in the population of older adults in the community of Nazareno, Placetas municipality, among the oldest in Villa Clara. The objective is to propose a plan of recreational physical actions that stimulate resistance within the physical condition and memory within the psychological condition. Theoretical, empirical and mathematical methods are used, the data are processed, it is explained that at the beginning there was insufficient attention to the tastes and preferences of the grandmothers and few variants of activities for these purposes In response to the problem, a plan of physical-recreational actions is proposed that allowed stimulating the resistance and memory of the investigated older adults. The personal characteristics of the older adults, their interests and needs were taken into account. Through the action plan, in a period of four years the improvement of resistance was confirmed in several grandmothers and in others this capacity is maintained, in general their physical condition improves, as well as good use of memory, without setbacks or obvious cognitive deterioration. It is concluded that physical-recreational activities promote participation and positive emotions, stimulating the physical-psychological condition in the studied older adults.