What are the fitness and health tracks for the elderly?

At present, small models of elderly fitness and health care have been implemented in China, mainly focusing on community light services, sinking age-appropriate equipment, and chronic disease intervention integrating sports and medicine. There are no absolute boundaries, and many teams are working in several directions in tandem.

In the past two months, I visited more than 20 community sites in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. The one I saw the most was the Yinfa Fitness Station, which cooperates with neighborhood committees and property management. They rent a space of more than ten square meters on the elevated floor of the community, put two blood pressure monitors, soft dumbbells, and balance mats, and run eight sections three times a week. Jin and chair exercise classes, along with helping the elderly test their blood oxygen and ask about their recent physical condition, each receive 180 yuan per month. There is a team in Shanghai Putuo that has been working for two years. They have opened 17 spots in one area alone, and the repurchase rate can be stable at more than 70%. Of course, the controversy is not small. Many people think that the unit price of this kind of customer is too low, and the money earned from taking classes is just enough to cover the salary of the coach. It is impossible to make money from pure services. But what they do well does not rely on classes to make money. Follow-up aging-friendly sports peripherals, quarterly short-distance health and wellness tours, and even meet the physical examination needs of the elderly. A single customer can dig out a value of less than 2,000 a year. Some practitioners complain that this model consumes community resources and cannot be entered without local connections. Cross-regional replication is extremely difficult, and each has its own reasons.

Different from relying on offline services for penetration, the growth rate of aging-friendly fitness equipment through online e-commerce has been frightening this year. There is a factory in Dongguan that used to sell fitness equipment for foreign trade. Last year, it switched to domestic sales and made two products: soft-sided dumbbells without counterweights and a foldable seat-type exercise bike. The buttons are larger than coins and the highest speed gear is 6. Last year, these two products sold more than 200 million yuan on Douyin and Pinduoduo. However, there is a lot of chaos in this area. I was searching for middle-aged and elderly fitness equipment on Pinduoduo, and many of the products that popped up were ordinary equipment with gray shells, without even anti-slip pads, and dared to be labeled as "suitable for aging." Many people complained that this was a quick way to make money with poor information. In two years, the industry standards will definitely be reshuffled. Some people think that the fitness needs of the elderly have just been awakened, and even if they start the inclusive education market, it is valuable.

If the first two are directions with low barriers to entry and can be entered by ordinary people, then chronic disease sports intervention linked to the public medical system is a solid track for accumulation. An exercise rehabilitation team I met last year is cooperating with a community hospital in Chaoyang District, Beijing this year to prescribe customized exercise prescriptions for elderly people diagnosed with hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Rehabilitation specialists follow up and adjust the plan every week. The service package for half a year is more than 3,000 yuan, and some medical and social security reimbursements are also available. Now it has opened 12 community points, and the customer complaint rate is less than 1%. Of course, the threshold in this direction is also very tight. Not only do you need rehabilitation qualifications, but you also need resources to connect with the medical system. Ordinary entrepreneurs are basically out of reach. However, some people in the industry say that now the national policy is vigorously promoting the integration of physical education and medicine, and more cooperation ports will definitely be opened in the future. If you accumulate experience and qualifications now, you can reap dividends in the future.

Not long ago, I met a 72-year-old Aunt Zhang in a nursing home in Hangzhou. She had fluid in her knees and was afraid to go downstairs. She was first prescribed chronic disease exercise at a community hospital and followed community fitness classes twice a week. She also bought a seat-type exercise bike at home and the fluid was gone in more than three months. Most of the time, I now sign up for classes with my old sisters every day. You see, in fact, the tracks have never been separated. They can really follow the real needs of the elderly, instead of always thinking about selling high-priced health care products to the elderly. Cutting leeks, no matter which direction you cut, you can find your own living space.