Jockey Club Mus-fit for Health

The "Jockey Club Mus-Fit for Health Project," abbreviated as "Mus-Health," is a three-year community-based physical exercise program for the elderly launched by The Dr. Stephen Hui Research Centre for Physical Recreation and Wellness (CPRW) at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), with funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The overall idea is to engage elderly people to stay physically, mentally, and socially active through a series of organized activities. Most importantly, the project will help them develop regular exercise habits to stay healthy and improve their quality of life. Mus-Health is a well-planned exercise training program supported by evidence-based research with the application of motivation and habit-forming theories. Its goal is to establish a regular exercise regimen that aims to eliminate barriers to physical activity participation and build up habits of regular exercise for late middle-aged to young-old adults (aged 50-70). In this project, the exercise program is complemented with technology and social support theories. Due to the current pandemic situation, different modes of learning, both face-to-face and online, will also be applied to the targeted adults to help them adapt to the new normal. Our primary goal is to identify the effectiveness of different motivators for building up a regular exercise habit, including social support (including older adults' family members, youth, and peer health leaders), digital technology, and knowledge of physical literacy. In due course, we aim to deliver an important message to the community that ageing does not hinder exercise participation and social connection, but sedentariness does. CPRW works together with professional consultants and trained youth and peer health leaders to implement this health promotion and motivators discovery project with the evaluation of young-old adults' physical and socio-psychological health conditions as outcome measures. Meanwhile, online platforms are established to promote physical literacy by reaching and educating middle-aged and older adults in Hong Kong about a healthy lifestyle through appropriate regular exercise. Our participants will receive a personalized exercise training program focusing on their needs for functional fitness and socio-psychological well-being.