Association of Body Composition, Heart Rate and Aerobic Fitness of Mid-Age Males with Active Lifestyle

Abstract

Background: Mid-age people are very susceptible to lose baseline fitness while active life-style is a key to prevent ageing-related hypokinetic and degenerative diseases. Awareness of such scientific facts and application of these in practice are essential in the grass root level. Hardly research works in this area on apparently healthy people are conducted on mid-age people in India. Therefore it deems reasonable to investigate the status of aerobic fitness of morning walker mid-age people in relation to their body composition and resting heart rate. Objective: The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship among body mass index, resting heart rate and aerobic fitness of mid age males. Materials and Methods: 60 middle-aged males who undergo regular physical activities and ranging the age from 36-45 years participated as subjects of the study. Selected parameters for the study were body composition (BMI), resting heart rate (HR), aerobic fitness (AF) and age of subjects. BMI was calculated by using standard method in kg/m; resting heart rate (HR) was measured by palpation at the radial artery in beats/min.; and aerobic fitness (AF) was measured by ‘3-min step in place’ test in beats/min. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was used to find out the relationship among the variables. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Findings: BMI and AF 'r' = 0.266 ( 0.05). Result & Conclusion: In this study, statistically significant result is observed between BMI and Aerobic fitness and negative correlation is found between BMI & HR while no significant relationship of resting Heart rate is established with Aerobic fitness of the mid-age subjects.