Minimal and limited exercise load for health promotion of elderly persons

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of regular training on physical fitness of elderly persons. Our previous studies (1987,1988) have revealed that the physical fitness of elderly people gradually improved as the average life span extended but the significant reduction in physical fitness was observed over seventy years.In this year, twenty subjects (8 men and 12 women) between 65 and 80 years of age voluteered to train two days each week for six months (from May to November). The physical training in every week consisted two programs. Subjects participated one day in Program I : recreational ball games Involving mini-tennis and table tennis, and other day in Program II: endurance training involving bicycle ergometer exercise and treadmill walking. Before training period (pre-test), middle of training period (mid-test) and after six months of training (post-test), the subjects performed physical fitness test involving exhaustive test on a bicycle orgonoter so as to determine the limited work load. Tbo ECG and blood pressure were examined in detail during exhaustive test. V02max did not change between pretest and mid-test but significant increase occurred between pretest and post-test. It was considered that muscle power or flexibility might improve relatively rather than endurance capacity or agility. We concluded that exercise heart rate (160 beat per minute) and systolic blood pressure (200mmHg) could be an index for limited work load of elderly people, although their individual physical fitness was considerably different from each other. Furthermore it is desirable to examine ECG during exercise to observe PVC or S-T segment depression.