Exercise-Based Interventions as a Management of Frailty Syndrome in Older Populations: Design, Strategy, and Planning

Abstract

Exercise-based interventions emerged as the best alternative for treating frailty syndrome (FS). Recognized as a complex phenotype, the FS is a multifaceted aging expression determined by biologic, environment, and behaviors factors. The biological theories of human development perceive aging process as an accumulation of harmful biochemical changes, whose occurrence attends the course of life. The progressive losses of functional reserves that occur in the body systems are a hallmark of this negative process. Despite the biological effects of physical and cognitive decline, more contemporary studies have identified that the environmental and behavior factors such as malnutrition and negative psychological adjustment across the life span also contribute to the early appearance of FS. Notwithstanding the latest findings that consistently demonstrate an overall positive benefit of long-term-based exercise in the decrease and/or reversal of the FS with a substantial impact on their correlated outcomes, the focus of this chapter is to present strategies for designing exercise programs for this type of population, taking into account their practical application in the field.