Use Of Different Resistance Training Devices And Its Effects In The Fitness Of Postmenopausal Women

Abstract

The practice of physical activity has been one of the most widely-studied strategies to improve the quality of life on adults and older people. Some researchers have found positive results when using strength training to induce increases in the physical ability in this population. Some authors suggest the use of elastic bands (EB) since there are not significant differences with the weight machines (WM). The practice of physical activity in an aquatic environment has expanded greatly in recent decades because it is the only therapeutic and rehabilitation practice to be used in both recreational practice in healthy individuals. There are not studies comparing the use of the WM and/or EB with the aquatic devices that increase drag force (ADIDF). PURPOSE: To determine the short-term effects of a program of supervised strength training on the physical capacity of adult women using different devices: WM, EB and ADIDF. METHODS: 72 women (53,45±1,62 years; 66,28±2,93 kg) participated in the study and were randomly assigned to one of the four groups: WM group (G), EBG, ADIDFG and control group (CG). The subjects performed a physical capacity test before and after the intervention. Three tests were chosen for this study: the knee push-up test (KPU), the 60-s squat test (ST) and the abdominal crunch (partial curl-up) test (CT). The first three groups performed a resistance training with the different devices during 10 weeks at 2 weekly sessions. One-way repeated-measures analyses of variance were used to determine the effect of each intervention in the variables. RESULTS: There were significant differences in KPU, ST and CT between the pre and post-test in all the training groups. The improvements for the WMG were 62,62% in KPU, 21,14% in ST and 31,11% in CT. For the EBG 30,62%, 16,27% and 27,4% respectively and for the ADIDFG there were increases of 98.04%, 40.26% and 18.18% in the number of repetitions for push-ups, squats and crunches, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Training with ADIDF is effective improving physical capacity of postmenopausal women in the short term. The ground exercises performed with either of the two devices used in this regimen also achieved good results. Our results support a diversified exercise prescription that employ the use of resistance performed with effective training sessions and different devices.