Building an adapted physical activity program in senior living

Start from the schedule, not from the exercises

A program that needs a new slot in the week rarely survives its first month. Communities that sustain adapted physical activity almost always build it inside a slot that already exists, and change what happens in it.

The second constraint is staffing. A session that needs two people runs when two people are free, which is not every week. Design for one.

What a session should look like

Thirty to thirty-five minutes, in three parts. Five minutes of gentle warm-up with something very easy, which is also how residents who arrived reluctant decide to stay. Twenty to twenty-five minutes of effort, varied every two or three rounds. Five minutes of calm before residents leave.

Varying every few minutes is not a stylistic choice. Attention in a mixed group does not hold on a single task, and a session that changes activity keeps residents who would otherwise drift away.

How do you run one session for very different abilities?

This is the question that decides whether a program includes twenty residents or six. On an interactive wall the level changes between rounds without being announced: target size, speed, round length, number of options.

Seated residents play the lower part of a projected image two to four meters (roughly 7 to 13 feet) wide while standing residents play higher up, in the same game. For residents who cannot throw or reach the wall, the optional K-motion camera detects body movement without any object.

Five residents play at once, sixteen take part by taking turns, and the number of impacts detected at the same time is not limited.

Who should run it?

An activities director can run it alone. No technical skill is needed: switch the unit on, choose an activity, start it, adjust between rounds.

Where a community has access to a physical therapist or an exercise professional, the useful division is that they set the objectives and the activities team runs the sessions. A program that depends on a visiting professional being present runs as often as that professional visits, which is not often enough to change anything.

How do you show the program is working?

Not with the equipment. Kmoove records no health data: results stay local to the unit and only a first name may be entered. Clinical measures come from the community's own assessment tools, on its own schedule.

What the activity supplies is attendance and engagement, which is what most programs actually lack. Twenty residents attending weekly beats a better-designed program that six attend.

See the [sport and health centers](/en/sectors/maisons-sport-sante) page for how the same structure is used outside senior living.

How long before residents notice a difference?

Engagement changes in the first two or three sessions, which is the honest thing to report because it is what staff observe. Residents who declined the previous program come to the second session, and some who never attended anything come to the third.

Physical change takes longer and belongs to the community's own assessments, not to the equipment. What a program can promise after a month is attendance, and attendance is the condition of everything else.

What equipment does a session need?

A clear wall, a 230 V outlet and enough room for the group to move, wheelchairs included. Nothing else, and no network: every activity is stored inside the unit.

A [K-Station](/en/products/k-station-s) stays installed and starts by being switched on. A [K-Mobile](/en/products/k-mobile-s) sets up in five minutes with no tools, which is what makes a twice-weekly slot survive a real week. See the [pricing page](/en/pricing) for the six configurations.