Why Choose EnhanceFitness?

There are many reasons to choose EnhanceFitness (EF) as your organization’s evidence-based physical activity and falls prevention program:

  • EF improves the health of your participants!
  • 99% of surveyed participants would recommend EF to friends and relatives
  • EF classes meet all recommendations for older adults in the US HHS Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2nd Edition, Nov 2018) 
  • EF is designated “Arthritis Friendly” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • The US HHS Administration on Community Living approved EF as a Fall Prevention Program
  • Your EF license includes technical support and implementation resources from a dedicated and experienced program support team
  • EF classes require no expensive equipment. You can have it up and running at your facility in no time!
  • EF classes are available to participants on a predictable, regular and ongoing basis. Classes are available three times a week, every week! This facilitates participant adherence and makes it easy for health care providers to refer their patients.
  • Your EF instructors receive training, a detailed, illustrated manual, and connection to the larger EF instructor network, which will give them the expertise and confidence they need to lead classes
  • A low-cost, user-friendly EF-specific web-based data collection and reporting system is available! This system includes standardized outcomes reports for participants, your agency, and your funders
  • When you join, you join a supportive national network of EnhanceFitness affiliates

Many programs claim to improve the health of older adults. Few can demonstrate real results based on sound scientific research. From the beginning, EnhanceFitness has demonstrated measurable results. 

“It gives me something to look forward to. The exercises strengthen my limbs, I’m more active, I feel better, I’m not just lying around the house.”

– An EnhanceFitness participant

The pilot study of the intervention that became EnhanceFitness began in 1993 at Northshore Senior Center in Bothell, WA. The response from those first participants was overwhelmingly positive.

Even before the pilot study ended, participants requested to keep the program as a permanent exercise activity at the center. Not only were these older adults excited about their class, but study measures showed that the group improved significantly in almost every dimension tested, from physical and social functioning to levels of pain and depression. The pilot results, published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, showed that the intervention significantly improved overall fitness and health. Study participants realized:

  • 13% improvement in social function
  • 52% improvement in depression
  • 35% improvement in physical functioning

Explore additional EnhanceFitness research to learn more about program results and replication.