“Exercise is good for you,” says Marcel Norn.

It’s more than a simple statement of fact for the Aboriginal elder from Fort Resolution in the Northwest Territories. It’s a mantra, a sermon, and a call to action for his fellow elders.

Norn has become an exercise ambassador since joining Elders In Motion, developed by the NWT Recreation and Parks Association and the Aborginal Dene Nation to provide a safe and effective fitness program for older adults in the region.

The 78-year-old has a number of health issues. A heart attack in 1987 forced him to make lifestyle adjustments: he began walking every morning, gave up smoking and altered his diet, cutting out butter and fatty foods. Nevertheless, he began to have problems with shortness of breath and, five years ago, underwent triple bypass surgery. He’s also suffered with knee pain for more than 30 years, resulting in two knee replacement surgeries – and now laughingly refers to his “plastic knees.”

Believing that walking – which he does regularly, even using a treadmill in bad weather – improved his health, Norn embraced the Elders In Motion exercise program when it was launched in Fort Resolution last fall as one of five community-based pilot projects. He maintains that it has helped him get rid of persistent leg cramps that even medication had not resolved.

So now he promotes the program and the benefits of exercise to anyone who will listen.

“He’s even been on the radio, telling everyone in the community how great the program is and how it’s helped him … how he feels stronger and healthier,” chuckles Shaun Doherty, Elders In Motion coordinator and a fitness consultant with NWT Recreation and Parks.

While Doherty admits the stereotype of life in the far north evokes images of activity – snowshoeing, canoeing, dog-sledding – he says the reality is that many had drifted away from that traditional way of life to a more sedentary existence, often because of chronic diseases like diabetes.

The need to reverse that led to the idea for Elders In Motion, which started with a booklet of simple exercises that had been developed by a community health representative working in remote villages. The idea was to build on it, develop a more sophisticated regimen and train people to use it with the region’s older adults.

But the plan got a big boost when NWTRPA discovered the Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging (CCAA), a national not-for-profit research and education centre, associated with the University of Western Ontario, and the country’s leader in research and development for improved physical ability and healthy aging for older adults.

“We already had programs that have been tested and are evidence-based that could be applied there and we do training,” says Sarah Merkel, project coordinator with CCAA. “So they decided, why reinvent the wheel.”

Merkel and her colleagues began working with Doherty’s group to adapt exercise programs and, in February, she and program director Clara Fitzgerald travelled to Yellowknife for a Training Gathering, a week of intensive work with fitness professionals, support workers and elders themselves.

Merkel delivered the Seniors Fitness Instructor Course, teaching 10 people to lead group fitness classes. The course, combining theory and practical work, prepares instructors to work with the special needs and conditions of older adults – for example health conditions like arthritis, cardiovascular problems and even dementia – to offer exercise that is both effective and safe.

“It’s important to have certified people teaching, who know and understand why it’s important to do things a certain way,” she says.

Two of those participants will come to London for a Research to Action conference in June and during that time will take additional CCAA training to become master trainers.

“In that way it becomes sustainable and that’s very important,” Merkel says.

Fitzgerald led a training session for 40 people who will go on to train caregivers and personal-support workers to deliver the Home Exercise Support Program for frail older adults.

Portions of those workshops were filmed for a training DVD. It, along with a booklet outlining the home exercise program, are being adapted to the unique culture of the North. Doherty explains that the DVD will highlight traditional activities such as drum dancing. “These activities are very much alive in the community and no one really thinks about them as exercise but they very much are.”

Follow-up in the pilot communities indicates that it’s already taking off nicely, Doherty says, adding that a “champions” program has been initiated with elders, like Marcel Norn, who have had success with the program and can encourage others to get involved.