GYM TONIC
Client / Lien Foundation
Sector / Healthcare
Service / Spatial Design, Placemaking
This gym for the elderly empowers senior citizens to be independent and defeat the onslaught of frailty amongst the elderly. Working together with the Lien Foundation and its partners, we used human-centered design to create a space for the elderly to keep healthy, make friends, and improve their mental well-being.
Fighting in Singapore's battle against frality - as Singapore’s population ages, we need more innovative solutions that will help fight the symptoms of ageing. Can we design a holistic wellness programme that could incorporate not only resistance training but much more? How might we design a programme that motivates seniors to exercise as well as to sustain their interest for an enduring effect on wellness? We turned these challenges into opportunities for design.
We collaborated with Lien Foundation, gym trainers, social services and experts to create the concept “Exercise-As-Medicine” to combat frailty among seniors. Instead of popping pills as medicine to combat an illness (in this case, the “illness” of old age), Gym Tonic focuses on building strength.
Looi Yuan Hui, also known as Looi, a wellness coach at the Gym Tonic @ Bishan explains, “if we’re not active by the time we’re 60, that means we would have lost about 20% to 30% of our muscle mass. This means we have lost some capability to walk, climb stairs or get around”.Thus the gym tonic programme helps with strength training to help seniors be able to take care of themselves.
A place to build both physical and mental strength
Many elderly we spoke to had goals they wanted to achieve - they wanted to be strong enough to play with their grandchildren, be able to balance, defeat their fear of falling down, and even have enough strength to do simple household chores like washing the dishes.
Bearing this in mind, we designed Gym Tonic @ Bishan to be a space where seniors can build back their strength, face problems that come with “old age”, and in turn build their confidence and mental well-being. Gym Tonic is more than just a gym with equipment. In addition to the space, there exists an entire network dedicated to developing strength in seniors.
Benefits of joining the gym programme
At the gym, trainers guide members as they go through each exercise. The group structure of the gym programme allows members to have company and motivate each other. There is also a pantry and rest area for members to cool down, eat, and socialise. These opportunities for social interaction and the feeling of a sense of belonging are important for building mental wellness among the elderly.
We put data collection to good use too. When members enter the gym, they don’t need to remember how much weight they carried previously as a membership card contains this data. Each gym machine also helps count the number of reps that members need to do and counts down the rest time between each set. This allows them to track their growth, and once they see how far they’ve come and how close they are to achieving their goals, their confidence will grow as well.
Verdict - the members love the gym programme!
To date, more than 4000 elderly at 26 eldercare facilities have benefited from Gym Tonic all around Singapore. At the Gym Tonic @ Bishan, retention rate among members is at least 80% as many members wish to continue on with the programme. 30 members have been actively training since 2018, and 60 members have been active since 2019. The oldest member is a gentleman who is 100 years old, and around 10 members are in their 90s.
Many members love that the machines are spacious and well-spaced from each other. They also shared that the colours in the room and of the machines are soothing and appealing. Trainers noticed that members with dementia would read out the motivational slogans on the gym walls and this helps with mental stimulation and encouragement.
The trainers reflected on how the fruit wall allows them to conduct interactive and fun exercises like balance exercises, and activities for members with dementia by asking them to lean into the wall from a short distance and touch the image of the fruits. To make the space even better, they would have loved the images to be at waist height to eye level.
Creating their own queue system and painting a mural
Members suggested creating a unique queue system while waiting their turn to use a machine - slots for their gym cards were put on the walls so they could “queue up”. The gym also created their own guides on how to use each gym equipment to remind members how each exercise is supposed to be performed.
One of the members, Mr Jullian Smalley, a former architect, painted a mural on one of the walls in Gym Tonic’s outdoor spaces featuring scenes from various parts of the world like the Mediterranean Sea and rolling hills in the Italian countryside. He took 6 months to complete the project and with the help of a few of his fellow gym tonic friends and his wife.
The way the seniors adapted the space to suit their needs and also lovingly added touches of their own shows how proud they are of their gym and how they feel it truly belongs to them. In design, we must also provide opportunities and room for users to adjust the space to their needs.
Designing for the next group of elderly - the baby boomers
One in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 years and above by 2030, thus we will need more spaces that can enable seniors to live out their golden years with joy, dignity and good health. Many in the baby boomer generation are already in this statistic, and they are more educated, well-travelled and have higher spending power than the pioneer generation of Singaporeans.
They will have completely different needs, thus, spaces like Gym Tonic @ Bishan will need to evolve. Design solutions are never the end of the road - they can be constantly tweaked to suit the users’ needs.
In Afternaut’s case, we would like to design and understand more about issues faced by the elderly, and we're always on the lookout to co-create with partners. Get in touch at hello@theafternaut.com if you’d like to work together with us!
For further questions regarding this project, please feel free to reach out to hello@theafternaut.com for more information.
Zero One Tech Festival 2018
The Afternaut Group Pte Ltd. 2024
