Summary
Hayama Town has been promoting the “Chokin Exercise” (a type of muscle strengthening exercise) town-wide since 2016. Currently, this exercise programme is being held in 15 locations, helping to widen a community network among older residents.
The “Chokin Exercise” does not require any equipment, so anyone can practice it easily, even at home. Nevertheless, the “Chokin Exercise” has been scientifically proven to have a certain level of effectiveness in improving muscle strength. Older people get together once a week to perform the “Chokin Exercise” while singing its theme song, and they also practice at home during the rest of the week.
The aims of “Chokin Exercise” are to create a community network and to reduce older residents’ care-dependency. “Chokin exercise” not only maintains their health, but also improves their ME-BYO status. “ME-BYO” is a concept which does not consider health and sickness as two clearly separable conditions. Rather, the physical and mental condition is deemed to be continuously changing between health and sickness, and “ME-BYO” is the concept that covers the entire process of this change.
The programme has received many happy comments from older participants such as “I now trip less frequently” or “Weeding my garden is much less tiring now.” Through the “Chokin Exercise” programme, we are building a community where people support each other and can live actively as they age.
Key facts
Main target group: Older people in general
Sector(s): Health
Desired outcome for older people:
Build and maintain relationships