Patrick Calders

Functional Fitness for Adults Living with Down Syndrome

“People living with Down syndrome have low physical activity and different pathological conditions, mainly in the field of cardiovascular complications and mitochondrial dysfunction. As a result of this, they have a low physical performance/fitness levels. This puts stress on pathological conditions, thereby placing people living with Down syndrome in a negative cycle. There is an urgent need for more physical activity and fitness for these persons, and in this book the author has made an immense effort in researching how to perform testing, how to interpret the data, and how to translate this into a lifestyle program of supervised exercise training programs. This gives good guidance on how to perform the evaluation, and once the data is gathered how to interpret translate the data. Attention is not only given to the physiological component, but also to the psychological component, mainly in the motivation of the person living with Down syndrome. It is the first book that focuses on a very specific population which is challenging to evaluate and train. That is why this book is so interesting for the reader, to better understand testing and training in this population.”