Effects of a Physical Activity Program on Cardiac Cycle Events in Sedentary Individuals

Antonia Dalla Pria Bankoff,Carlos Aparecido Zamai

doi:10.4172/2155-9880.1000177

Abstract

Physical activities – walking, fitness and ballroom dancing - were offered over a six month period (April-September 2007). Sixty-minute classes were offered three times a week, in the morning, at the Physical Activities Stand, in a program called Mexa-se (Move your Body). Each class was divided into three stages: warm-up (10 minutes); the class itself (45 minutes); and stretching and relaxation exercises performed to background music, in the last phase (05 minutes). Twenty-five sedentary individuals took part in this study: n=09 men (ages 34 to 50) and n=16 women (ages 31 to 51). This study aims to verify the effects of the program on the following cardiac cycle events: Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR). The Naughton Protocol was applied and the individuals were evaluated and re-evaluated according to the aforesaid methodology. Heart rate, Systolic Blood Pressure and Diastolic Blood Pressure at rest and during post-exercise recovery were statistically analyzed t-test, with p>0.05 significance level. At rest: in both sexes, there was no significant difference between evaluation and re-evaluation heart rate; regarding SBP and DBP, only the men showed a significant difference between evaluation and re-evaluation values. At recovery: there was no difference between evaluation and re-evaluation heart rate in either group (men and women); SBP was different between evaluation and re-evaluation in both groups from the first minute up to the sixth minute; regarding DBP, there was no difference in the first minute, but from the second minute onward, both groups showed a difference between evaluation and re-evaluation values. It should also be noted that at evaluation, both groups completed the Protocol to the 4 th stage, and at re-evaluation, 37.5% of females and 33.3% of males completed the Protocol to the 5 th and 6 th stages. For statistical analysis, we only included up to the 4 th stage in the re-evaluation, which showed a significant difference for the male group but not for the female group. Through these results, we observed that the offered physical activity program was an efficient means to a cardiac cycle events.

Highlights

Well-structured, well-supervised physical activity can help one to achieve and maintain an adequate body weight, and contributes positively to the mitigation of other risk factors for coronary disease, such as lipid profile, insulin resistance and hypertension
The results were obtained by Test t statistical analysis (p >0.05 significance level) of the values obtained at evaluation and reevaluation for heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, in the following circumstances: at rest, at the 1st to 4th stages of the Naughton treadmill protocol, and during post-exercise recovery, as per Table 2
After 06 months of aerobic physical activity for both groups evaluated using the modified Naughton protocol on a treadmill before the start of physical activity and after the results in Table 2 shows that the heart rate showed no significant results through the Test t p >0.05 for both groups in the variables analyzed after six months of aerobic physical activity practices

Summary

Introduction

Well-structured, well-supervised physical activity can help one to achieve and maintain an adequate body weight, and contributes positively to the mitigation of other risk factors for coronary disease, such as lipid profile, insulin resistance and hypertension. Physical activity contributes to body weight management, and to the control of diabetes, high blood cholesterol and arterial hypertension [1,2,3]. Salve & Bankoff [5] reported that physical activity is one of the fundamental elements in achieving and maintaining good quality of life. Exercise should be practiced during leisure hours, as well as at work through specific programs. This contributes significantly to the establishment of physical and mental equilibrium

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Conclusion