Community Fitness

Linking science, community benefit, and a love of being active, two students’ summer research addressed fitness for Grinnell’s town residents. Delia Salomon ’14 and Matt Schaeffer ’14 worked with Liz Queathem, assistant professor of biology, on a mentored advanced project to identify barriers to exercise and to develop programs to make it easier for people — particularly older adults — to incorporate exercise into their daily lives. 

Salomon and Schaeffer took a two-pronged approach to their studies, complementing their individual interests: Salomon, a swimmer herself, tracked participants at twice-weekly water aerobics classes at the College’s Russell K. Osgood Pool. Baseball player Schaeffer followed participants walking three times a week, some on a treadmill, and some at Grinnell’s Arbor Lake.

“We were particularly interested in how exercise programs can affect functional mobility,” Salomon explains. At the beginning and end of the training program (Salomon’s lasted six weeks and Schaeffer’s five), participants took part in a functional reach test and timed up-and-go test, two standard exams used to measure functional mobility. 

“Mobility is the single biggest threat to people’s independence,” Queathem says. “Many elderly people fear that they are just one fall away from a nursing home. Anything they can do to protect their mobility is valuable, and we know that exercise can significantly help reduce fall risks.”

The researchers hope to use their project as a springboard to build partnerships and fitness programs with Grinnell’s local citizens. Working with Kristin Kahn of St. Francis Manor, a local retirement community, they hope to set up a fitness test open to the town, as well as a Columbus Day run/walk that would pair St. Francis residents with College athlete walking buddies. They are also interested in building relationships with the Mayflower Community, another local retirement complex that recently offered a class on how to avoid falls. 

“One of the main reasons I enjoy research like this is that I can see it having a clear benefit,” Salomon says. “We’re trying to bridge doing the science and benefiting people in the community.”