One in 5 Philadelphians are age 60 or older, and the town’s senior inhabitants has been rising for a minimum of the previous decade.
I’m a Philly-based bodily therapist and researcher who research how to spice up bodily job for seniors and other folks with disabilities. Sufferers, individuals within the research I habits, and older neighborhood contributors alike regularly question me: “What should I do to stay healthy?”
My resolution is discreet: Motion is without doubt one of the maximum tough gear we need to reinforce our our bodies and minds, and to stick unbiased as we get older.
The Global Well being Group recommends that each one adults, regardless of their age, must goal for a minimum of 150 mins of aerobic actions every week, and energy coaching two times per week. Older adults must additionally observe stability coaching via actions like tai chi, yoga or dance to forestall falls.
However maximum older adults don’t meet a majority of these metrics. In reality, in Philadelphia, 30% of seniors document having issue with mobility actions like strolling or mountain climbing stairs.
Whilst staying energetic is essential to growing older independently, the environments the place we are living additionally affect those results. Consider “blue zones,” puts the place one of the healthiest and longest-living other folks on the planet are living. They in most cases reside longer as a result of a mixture of social connections, motion alternatives and diets.
Philly is surely now not a blue zone, however there are execs to transferring via your golden years right here … and a few cons.
City infrastructure
Philadelphia’s common side road grid, shut neighborhoods and the truth that a lot of Heart Town is out there by way of foot lend a hand provide an explanation for why Philly was once named essentially the most walkable town within the U.S. by way of USA These days for the previous 3 years.
When you’re taking within the town on foot, you’re very prone to bump into a public park like one of the vital 5 ancient squares designed by way of William Penn within the 1680s, the large Fairmount Park – which is over 10 instances the dimensions of Central Park in New York – or the bustling Clark Park in West Philadelphia, amongst others.
In reality, 95% of all Philadelphia citizens – and 94% of the ones 65 and older – reside inside of a 10-minute stroll of a public park. Then again, the ones parks have a tendency to be smaller and lower-quality for other folks in low-income neighborhoods.
Philly’s public transit gadget, on the other hand, has a tendency to obtain much less reward.
At first of 2025, over 700,000 other folks rode some type of Southeastern Pennsylvania Public Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, public transit day by day. However this yr was once marked by way of dramatic carrier cuts – although they have been briefly reversed – investment uncertainty and fare will increase.
Public transportation is without delay related to the full well being of a town and its citizens. Wholesome public transportation can stimulate native economies, beef up air high quality and build up get admission to to paintings, faculty and well being maintain everybody, whether or not they personal a automobile or now not.
And the bodily job regularly required to get to and from a bus, educate or trolley prevent may give some further motion for riders.
Adults 65 and older can journey SEPTA totally free with a SEPTA Key Senior Fare Card.
Leonardo Munoz/AFP by the use of Getty Pictures
Since older adults make up a good portion of SEPTA riders, carrier cuts imply that some seniors can’t get the place they wish to move, are much less bodily energetic and would possibly change into lonelier.
In fact, Philly’s ancient cobblestone streets, slim alleyways and asymmetric sidewalks aren’t wheelchair- or cane-friendly, and are a problem for other folks with mobility boundaries. Then again, in 2023, Philadelphia settled a category motion lawsuit over inaccessible sidewalks and curb ramps that ended in a federal mandate that calls for the town to put in or repair 10,000 curb ramps by way of 2038. Philly has put in or fastened about 25% of that general to this point.
Philadelphia additionally has many ancient structures, and this designation lets in for a loophole to American citizens with Disabilities Act compliance rules. Those structures are regularly inaccessible to those that use wheelchairs or different mobility units.
Products and services for seniors
In 2011, Philly introduced the Mayor’s Fee on Getting old to reinforce insurance policies and tasks that goal to beef up the standard of lifetime of older adults.
On the time, the U.S. was once experiencing an enormous shift in demographics. The choice of adults age 65 and older grew by way of just about 40% from 2010 to 2020. In step with analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philly skilled a an identical, albeit much less dramatic, upward development. Town’s senior inhabitants grew by way of 22% from 2013 to 2023.
The Mayor’s Fee on Getting old advocates for older citizens and regularly companions with businesses just like the Philadelphia Company on Getting old that target seniors. PCA provides a number of systems to reinforce senior independence and wellness, such because the Senior Housing Help Restore Program and the Caregiver Improve Program, which gives lend a hand for the friends and family who reinforce seniors.
Public parks may also be nice puts for citizens to get of their steps or workout outside.
FG Industry/E+ Assortment by the use of Getty Pictures
PCA additionally oversees 28 senior neighborhood facilities all the way through the town. Every of the facilities provides various loose or cheap categories, together with nationally known bodily job systems that beef up energy, stability, high quality of existence and different vital well being metrics for older adults.
The Salvation Military Kroc Heart of Philadelphia in North Philadelphia is any other nice useful resource for older Philadelphians. The cutting-edge gym provides health, swimming and gardening alternatives. An annual club is US$451 for adults over age 62, and the membership accepts some insurance coverage wellness advantages.
In 2026, I can spouse with the Kroc Heart to release Bingocize, an evidence-based bodily job program for older adults, as a part of a analysis learn about funded by way of the Arthritis Basis. We are hoping to determine if the brand new program boosts bodily serve as and bodily job, and improves arthritis signs and high quality of existence. We’re additionally taking a look at what components will make this system sustainable on the Kroc Heart lengthy after the learn about is over.
I imagine Philly has extra paintings to do with regards to offering seniors get admission to to bodily actions that advertise wholesome growing older. However the seeds planted over a decade in the past to offer protection to and reinforce the town’s all of a sudden rising growing older inhabitants exhibit a dedication to certain alternate, and an figuring out that the place we are living impacts particular person and collective well being.
