EFFECTS OF DEEP WATER EXERCISE ON AEROBIC CAPACITY IN OLDER WOMEN1253

Abstract

No studies have addressed the issue on how participation in deep water running may affect cardiorespiratory endurance in older women. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of deep water exercise on aerobic work capacity in older women. Thirty-five sedentary women were randomly assigned to control (CO, N=10, 57.5±2.3 yr) and exercise(EX, N=25, 63.1±1.6 yr) groups. Pre and post training, subjects completed physician supervised symptom limited graded exercise treadmill test(GXT) using the Bruce protocol. Mean values for minute ventilation (VE), oxygen uptake (VO2), respiratory exchange ratio (R), and ventilatory threshold(Tvent) were recorded. Subjects participated in supervised exercise 3 d·wk-1 for 10 wk with HR recorded every 5 min during the exercise session. Exercise compliance for EX was 85%. No significant differences were found pre or post between groups for any variables, except resting systolic blood pressure (SBP). Prior to training, EX had significantly higher (p<.05) resting SBP than CO. Following training, EX significantly decreased resting SBP (p<.05). Post-test results indicated no significant differences between EX or CO for resting SBP. Pre-training peak DBP (p<.05) and peak SBP (p<.05) were higher in EX than CO. Following training, no significant difference was found between EX and CO for peak DBP or peak SBP measures. Peak SBP significantly increased in CO (p<.05) following the 10 wk period. After training, EX significantly (p≤.05) increased VO2max(l·min-1), percent predicted VO2max (l·min-1), VO2max (ml·kg-1·min-1), percent predicted VO2max(ml·kg-1·min-1), and VE. The results of this study indicate that deep water running appears to be a viable training method for improving cardiorespiratory endurance in older women.