For approximately eight years now, the American Senior Fitness Association (SFA) has operated the Brain Fitness Project which monitors scientific progress in the area of cognitive health. The focus of the Brain Fitness Project is on the impact this new knowledge may have with regard to:

• Improving older adults' quality of life on a wide-scale basis, and
• Increasing service opportunities for senior fitness professionals.

Certainly, there is much new and emerging information to monitor! For example, just this week researchers at the University of Florida released the details of a study shedding light on why some brain cells essential for memory can withstand old age and disease, while similar neighboring cells die off. Their report is reprinted for you later in this newsletter ("Cellular 'Brakes' May Slow Memory Process in Aging Brains").

Also, popular cultural trends reflect a widespread interest brain health. Commercial products are being developed to inform laypersons and help them preserve their mental acuity. Two reliable DVD items, both produced by the Public Broadcasting Service, are "The Secret Life of the Brain" and "The Aging Brain." Descriptions of these productions are provided for you in this issue ("Brainy Buys").

The following shortened selections from SFA's professional study program Brain Fitness for Older Adults relate a philosophy that supports senior fitness personnel branching out into cognitive fitness services:

Senior fitness professionals are singularly equipped and well positioned to implement brain fitness activities as an exciting new component of physical exercise programming. Acting within the older adult fitness setting is a notably practical means of putting this new human health knowledge into use.

Senior physical activity professionals are accustomed to change and the need to keep learning new things about their field. Due to common hearing and vision declines in older populations, they have long been attuned to neurological issues in addition to the conventional focus on musculoskeletal, pulmonary, and cardiovascular fitness. Some years ago, evidence indicated the inclusion of targeted balance training in senior fitness programming, which required them to expand their understanding of neurological functions. Thus, they are now most conveniently poised for further in-depth study and emphasis on the subject.

Senior fitness, like nursing, is one of the caring professions. The mature fitness professional community includes a host of workers with just the right temperament for this kind of challenge. Most entered the field because they want to help others and are dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of their older adult clients. No equally qualified profession that automatically reaches and teaches comparable legions of seniors on as regular, continuing, and long-term a basis can be predicted to more eagerly and efficiently adopt these new responsibilities.

Senior fitness trainers and instructors occupy an excellent position from which to actively promote brain health on a large scale. They work with the segment of our population that is the most at-risk for cognitive decline. In fact, they do so on a regular schedule, which is vital since brain exercise, like physical exercise, must be performed with frequency in order to yield the desired results.

In addition to exercise science, senior fitness professionals also routinely study the mental, social, and psychological issues associated with aging. Therefore, a working knowledge base is already in place from which to launch focused efforts to improve cognitive fitness. Having developed the communication and motivational skills necessary to advance older adult physical fitness, they also can be leaders in the fascinating realm of cognitive fitness. Older adult fitness workers are in the daily business of senior health promotion. Many of the healthy lifestyle habits they constantly reinforce are the very habits that also appear to enhance older adult brain fitness.

The following excerpt provides a short, simplified sample of the comprehensive brain-function studies provided in SFA's Brain Fitness for Older Adults educational program:

The cerebral cortex is the extensive outer layer of gray tissue of the cerebral hemispheres and is the dominant actor in the brain with regard to language, abstract thought, and memory. The term cerebral hemisphere refers to either half of the cerebrum (the two hemispheres being divided by the longitudinal cerebral fissure, or groove, and then joined together again at the bottom by another structure of the brain). The cerebrum itself is the large rounded structure of the brain that occupies most of the cranial cavity. So, then, the cerebral cortex is that thin, but very extensive, layer of cells that envelopes the cerebrum, covering the deeper structures of the brain.

These brief excerpts from SFA's professional course of study Brain Fitness for Older Adults touch on the theory and practice of effective cognitive fitness programming in senior physical exercise settings:

In conceiving and developing valid, effective brain fitness activities, senior exercise leaders must take into account myriad practical and theoretical programming details. For example, is one's brain-fitness activity concept a sound idea? If so, why? The health-fitness professional's supposition that the activity has mental fitness value must be logically justified before moving forward to the next planning stages.

A compilation of 12 specific criteria must be consulted in assessing the relevancy of specific mental fitness activities. Two examples will be given here. Does the proposed activity:

Important logistical factors that also must be considered include:

To assist program leaders in this undertaking, the American Senior Fitness Association provides a checklist of 25 brain-fitness activity planning requirements that is especially designed for use by members of the older adult physical activity services profession. It consists of a series of pertinent questions that must be answered in the affirmative before a cognitive fitness activity can be responsibly conducted. Five examples will be given here:

After conducting a brain fitness activity, the program leader must complete an effective post-activity evaluation process. Detailed instructions are provided in the Brain Fitness for Older Adults training program. Included in the larger framework of the post-activity evaluation procedure is a series of 10 questions the program leader should ask himself or herself. Four examples will be given here:

An expert peer review process showed that 24.5* study hours are needed to complete the Brain Fitness for Older Adults professional education program. Therefore, it provides 24.5* SFA continuing education credits. As with other SFA continuing education courses, Brain Fitness for Older Adults is being submitted for preapproval by other organizations.

Brain Fitness for Older Adults is a reader-friendly, illustrated correspondence course program. Students who pass the post-test will earn their professional certificate as an American Senior Fitness Association Cognitive Fitness Facilitator. The course materials include:

SFA members are entitled to an exclusive pre-publication savings opportunity. After January 10, 2009, Brain Fitness for Older Adults will be available to everyone for $249 (but only $224 with your SFA membership discount). Shipping/handling is $15.

Online, in print, on film, and in scientific journals and other scholarly publications -- new brain-health findings and insights appear daily. The American Senior Fitness Association's Brain Fitness Project is committed to filtering this avalanche of information for SFA members so that no one gets buried under it! Consequently, we regularly pre-screen and present related material relevant to senior fitness workers in our twice-monthly newsletter Experience! On those terms, the following article from the University of Florida Health Science Center has been selected for publication based on its power to boost readers' understanding of the complexities inherent in memory fitness:

An ever-responsible source of informative video productions, the Public Broadcasting Service offers several easy-to-follow presentations on brain health. The two DVD products described below are suitable for lay audiences but will also prove illuminating to many health-fitness professionals: