The Cidade Social online platform awarded the Quality Certification to “Exercício e Saúde”, a community program promoted by the Municipality of Portimão since 2002 and aimed at encouraging citizens aged 60 years and over to practice regular physical exercise .
This distinction, awarded under the Friends of Sport 2021 Municipalities, «results from the commitment of the Portimão Council to ensure the participation of the elderly in regular physical exercise programs, in aerobic and strength aspects, which provides for the creation and development of favorable adaptations that contribute to healthy aging», explains the municipality.
The Exercise and Health program, aimed at the senior and elderly population of the municipality, takes place in the parishes of Portimão, Alvor and Mexilhoeira Grande, through a set of regular activities and others of a specific nature, in different types of sports facilities (Pavilhão Desportivo da Boavista , Pavilhão Gimnodesportivo de Portimão, Sports Complexes of Alvor and Mexilhoeira Grande), with the monitoring of a wide range of qualified technicians.
According to the Portimão City Council, «in the last four seasons, Exercise and Health has seen a sustained increase in demand, with the exception of the 2020/2021 sporting season, whose numbers were greatly affected by Covid-19, which was also reflected in the era
ongoing.
The objectives of the program are oriented towards the physical component, «in addition to increasing cardiovascular fitness and levels of muscle strength and endurance, maintaining or attenuating the loss of flexibility, coordination and balance, in order to reduce attributable risk factors to disuse and aging».
The initiative “also intends to increase social interaction, reduce isolation and reactivate levels of independence and autonomy, as well as providing a better occupation of leisure time and promoting, in general, well-being”.
Participants are provided with the following activities: assessment of physical and functional fitness; prescription of physical activity; monitoring and guidance of physical activity; maintenance gymnastics/aerobics, gerontomotricity, pilates, yoga, running gait, hydrogymnastics and hydrotherapy, hiking and specific activities (thematic classes, games, exchanges, olympics, soirees, lectures and final gala).
The Portimão Council emphasizes that this is «a dynamic program that is a reference in the community for its ethical conduct, capable of mobilizing the population to whom it is addressed, involving seniors in the habits and activities promoted, covering cognitive aspects,
motor, social and affective of the participants'.
Enrollments related to Exercise and Health usually take place from the second half of September, with the program operating in three phases: the first from the last week of September until Christmas; the second from early January to Easter; and the last from Easter to the end of June each year.
The Cidade Social platform, which awarded the certification, «provides information and good practices to increase the value of intervention by Portuguese municipalities in the areas of sport, youth and education, listing and organizing intervention solutions and training municipal managers and their employees in these three areas'.
Learn more about the “Exercise and Health” program here.
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