Singapore’s Seniors Turn to Parkour for Healthier Ageing
An unconventional exercise program is helping older adults build balance, strength and confidence as Singapore adjusts to life as a super-aged society.
Parkour is usually associated with young athletes vaulting over railings, scaling walls and moving rapidly through urban spaces. In Singapore, however, the discipline is being adapted for a very different group: older adults looking to stay strong, mobile and independent.
A program called Movement Singapore is using elements of parkour to help seniors improve balance, flexibility, agility and confidence in everyday movement. The initiative has attracted growing attention in recent months, including millions of views on social media, according to Reuters.
The classes were founded in 2017 by coach Tan Shie Boon after a 64-year-old woman approached him about taking up parkour to address balance problems. According to Reuters, after two months of practice she was able to stop relying on a support trolley and walk unaided.
The exercises do not ask older participants to perform the dramatic rooftop jumps often associated with the sport. Instead, they adapt parkour’s basic principles — controlled movement, balance, coordination, strength and learning how to respond safely when the body loses stability.
Tan told Reuters that parkour can also teach participants how to fall in ways that may help reduce the consequences of an accident. He has seen some students develop abilities that challenge common expectations of what people in their 60s and 70s can do physically.
For 69-year-old retiree Betty Boon, the results have translated directly into greater independence. After three years of training, she said she found herself able to carry her own luggage up steep stairs in Japanese train stations rather than depending on her husband or son. She also credited the classes with improving her strength and flexibility while providing a way to stay socially connected.
Her experience reflects a wider question now facing Singapore: how to preserve health and independence as its population ages.
Singapore became a super-aged society in 2025, when more than 21% of its population was aged 65 or older. In May 2026, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said the country was reaching ”the crest of ageing,” noting that around 200,000 seniors were then aged 70 to 74 and would move into an age group requiring greater levels of healthcare and support over the following five years.
That demographic shift has made healthy ageing a national priority.
Singapore already offers a range of programs intended to keep older residents physically and socially active. The government-backed Live Well, Age Well initiative, for example, provides activities across the island for people aged 50 and above. Live Well, Age Well Sport Singapore also offers senior participation rates and community sports activities through its ActiveSG network.
The emphasis on movement is supported by broader public-health evidence. The World Health Organization notes that physical activity in older age is important for maintaining functional capacity, preventing falls and preserving social connections. WHO guidance also recommends that older adults with reduced mobility undertake activities designed to improve balance and prevent falls several times a week.
What makes the Singapore parkour classes notable is not that they replace conventional exercise or fall-prevention programs. Rather, they challenge assumptions about the kinds of physical activity older people can undertake.
The social dimension may matter just as much. Healthy ageing is not simply about extending life expectancy; it is increasingly focused on maintaining what WHO calls functional ability — the capacity that allows people to continue doing the things they value.
For some of the Singapore participants, that may mean negotiating a staircase, travelling independently, meeting friends or simply feeling more confident about what their bodies can still do.
The popularity of Movement Singapore also points to a broader shift in perceptions of ageing. Activities once regarded as unsuitable or even unthinkable for older adults are increasingly being adapted around capability rather than age alone.
As Tan told Reuters, the objective is partly psychological as well as physical: ”Just keep proving to yourself that you can do more than you think you could.”
In one of the world’s fastest-ageing societies, that may be a useful lesson far beyond the parkour studio.
