Active Ageing and Physical Activity ― Guidelines, Functional Exercises and Recommendations

This book presents an analysis of active ageing and physical activity from a multidisciplinary perspective. With descriptions of exercises, adequately illustrated with pictures, this book shows that regular physical activity reduces the prevalence of chronic diseases associated with ageing, as well as the risk of morbidity and mortality of the elderly. It confirms that exercise programs minimize the psychomotor decline, prevent the loss of functionality, inability and dementia, and foster significant gains in health and well-being, leading to increased quality of life of the elderly.

Goncalo Dias obtained both M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees on Sport Sciences at the Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education of University of Coimbra and the B.Sc. degree at the Coimbra College of Education from the Coimbra Polytechnic Institute. He is currently a Professor of Advanced Topics in Motor Learning at the Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education of University of Coimbra (Master Course in Youth Sports Training) and a member of the Scientific Committee within the same institution. Over the past 10 years, he has been conducting scientific research on several areas associated to sports and health, namely physical activity among older adults, motor control, sport sciences, and others. Besides research and lecturing, he has been in charge of the organization of events, both in the public and private domains, as coordinator of the County Sports Office from Arganil, Portugal. Additionally, he is responsible for the program “Physical activity to older adults,” which brings together more than 100 elderly aged between 65 and 100 years old. This activity resulted in the publication of three books and several articles that portray the work of his research in 20 private institutions of social solidarity in Portugal, being currently considered one of Portugal’s leading experts in this field.

Micael S. Couceiro obtained the B.Sc., Teaching Licensure, and Master degrees on Electrical Engineering (Automation and Communications), at the Coimbra School of Engineering (ISEC), Coimbra Polytechnic Institute (IPC). He obtained the Ph.D. degree on Electrical and Computer Engineering (Automation and Robotics) at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of University of Coimbra (FCTUC), under a Ph.D. Grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Over the past 6 years, he has been conducting scientific research on several areas, namely robotics, computer vision, sports engineering, and others, all at the Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR-FCTUC). This resulted on more than 25 scientific articles in international impact factor journals and more than 50 scientific articles at international conferences. Besides being currently a researcher at ISR, he has been invited for lecturing, tutoring, and organization of events (e.g., professional courses, national and international conferences, among others), both in the public and private domains. He is a co-founder and currently the CEO of Ingeniarius—a company devoted to the development of smart devices, from which performance analysis in sports has been one of its main markets.