COMPARISON BETWEEN SIMULATED WALKING AND WALKING IN OLDER WOMEN

Abstract

1873 The purpose of this study was to compare the heart rate response of normal walking versus walking in a comercially available machine (Health Walker), which simulates walking with a pendular movement and has two exercise modes(fixed arms, moving arms). Fifteen women (59.8+-4.8years) performed three exercise modes (walking; walking machine with fixed arms; walking machine with moving arms) and three walking cadences (100, 120, 138 steps/min.) in a randomly assigned order. On each experimental condition subjects walked for five minutes, and Heart Rate (HR) was measured in the last two minutes of exercise. A 3x3 repeated measures ANOVA indicated the presence of a significant interaction between exercise mode and cadence (p<0.001). This means that normal walking can be compared with the use of the device with moving arms. Exercising on the machine with fixed arms didn't reach the cardiovascular effort of normal walking. Self selected exercise characteristics were compared (self-selected cadence, heart rate) between the three exercise modes. A One-way ANOVA showed significant differences in self-selected cadence (p<0.01) between normal walking (122 steps/min) and walking in the machine with fixed arms (135 steps/min). A One-way ANOVA for Heart Rate response under self selected exercise showed that subjects“regulated” their exercise at the same intensity on each exercise mode (similar HR values: range between 97-100 beats/min for the three modes). This effort was very near to the value representing 60% of maximal HR(Age-related aproximation), which is the reccomended exercise intensity to develop and maintain cardiorespiratory and muscular health. The results suggest that heart rate responses of normal walking are similar to those obtained with exercise in the walking machine with moving arms exercise mode.