Editorial

Of all the science conferences that have taken place this year, one in particular was of great importance to this journal: The 8th World Congress of Active Ageing, held from 13 to 17 August 2012 in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

Part of what made the conference so successful was the inclusion of interested citizens. Keynote lectures were held in such a way that a broad audience, including both scientists and seniors themselves, could benefit. The talks were framed by group performances, which saw active seniors take part in a number of musical, cultural and physical endeavours. Even in parallel sessions, some took part in discussions, thus the target group was always present and visible during the whole conference. My congratulations go out to the conference organizers, led by Dawn Skelton (Glasgow Caledonian University) and Bob Laventure (British Heart Foundation, Loughborough) for overseeing such an interesting and enjoyable event!

During the programme of events, The European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity contributed with an invited symposium, “Exercise for improving performance in all functioning levels—from master athletes to geriatric care residents”, and in this issue of EURAPA, we will be looking at scientific communication. We start with reviews on theoretical conceptions (or myths?) such as “well-being through exercise” [3] and “engagement with life” [4] and review physiological developments in aging, with a focus on muscle weakness [5] and nutritional aspects [2]. With regard to interventions, we present a review on water-based exercise [1] while methodological aspects of accelerometric measurement [6] and of performance-oriented mobility assessment [7] are studied in original contributions.

There is news from European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity (EGREPA) to share: The society board has appointed Dr. Wiebren Zijlstra as Editor-in-Chief for the biomedical section of EURAPA. Dr. Zijlstra, who recently moved from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) to the German Sports University Cologne (Germany), graciously agreed to join and has already started in his new role. A comprehensive introduction to him and his ideas, motivations and outlook will follow in the editorial of our first issue of 2013.

Before I leave you, I would like to invite everyone to renew or to begin their EGREPA membership. All the information you need can be found on http://www.egrepa.org.