Abstract
Aim As the population ages, a major challenge is to consider how to increase the quality and years of healthy life. Physical activity benefits are well established for older subjects. Therefore, maintenance of their physical fitness and avoidance of sedentary lifestyle are an important goal for community health programs. In this context, we have implemented an outpatient rehabilitation unit in the geriatric department of the University Hospital of Strasbourg with following aims: i) a medical evaluation of the senior fitness including two cardio-respiratory tests (maximal and endurance); ii) 9 weeks retraining program consisting in 18 sets of a 30-minute intermittent load exercise; iii) and finally, a cardiorespiratory evaluation of the gain on the pretraining values observed during the two tests. Results Of more than 200 candidates, only 143 were included in the study. Results for 26 males and females (66,4 ± 5 years) are given as an example of that short retraining programme efficiency. At the maximal test: values for maximal power intensity and V ˙ O 2 max are increased to 14 and 18% and onset of the anaerobic threshold is delayed (+31 and +35% of the pretraining intensity value). At the endurance test control: values of the initial endurance-training load (base) have been regularly increased; the final gain is a +41 ± 15% increase of the pretraining base values. During a 30-minute test executed with the initial pretraining load, heart rate and lactate values are decreased, respectively, to −7 and −11%, and to −33 and −37%. Conclusion Efficiency of this short (9 weeks) training programme is similar to that of much longer programmes. The “tailor-made” choice of the training intensities based on the maximal test is probably the best explanation for the good results obtained. The maximal exercise test is also an essential control for the subjects’ security.
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