Healthy aging: body practices in health education in the university extension

This study is part of the research line Methodology for Teaching Body Practices, of the Physical Education course at the University of Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI). It was organized based on the university extension proposal, from the Healthy Aging project, aimed at elderly people participating in a group of body practices at a Basic Health Unit (UBS), in a municipality in Santa Catarina, SC. Objective proposes to understand the diversity of body practices for health education for the elderly. It is a qualitative research and expresses the main meanings registered in the interventions of the referred project. The proposal involved bodily practices based on the role of the elderly in acting consciously for the transformation of styles and quality of life. It was possible to promote health education with practices that increased knowledge and positive attitudes towards life, integrating the human, artistic, cultural, and functional leisure dimensions, which improved expression and the repertoire of body movement.