Research

Exercise program inspires $14 million College of Medicine research study

Band Together, a program of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, involves free progressive strength-training classes run by trained volunteers in area churches and community centers. For 40 minutes, twice a week, participants use resistance bands to do shoulder presses, chair stands, pulls, calf raises, bicep curls and chest presses. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Three sets of shoulder presses, chat about the weather.

Three sets of chair stands, joke with the person on your right.

Three sets of arm pulls, encourage the person on your left.

This simple recipe – which combines strength training with socialization – has become a successful formula for older adults who participate in Band Together peer exercise groups throughout Central Pennsylvania.

Now, the program will expand to other parts of Pennsylvania thanks to $14 million in funding to Penn State College of Medicine from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The money will be used to study the effectiveness of integrating strength training, balance exercises and walking for older adults who have had a fall-related fracture.

Penn State Hershey internal medicine physician Dr. Chris Sciamanna created Band Together after watching his older patients progressively lose mobility.

“I assumed it was because they never exercised,” he said.

After researching available programs, Sciamanna decided to start his own to help his patients develop the muscle and balance they needed to avoid falls. He knew it had to be something that wouldn’t require a gym membership, complicated equipment or heavy dumbbells. An exercise physiologist in cardiac rehab suggested using resistance bands.

Read more about the Band Together program in Penn State Medicine.

Last Updated July 10, 2015

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