Premium
Effect of Long‐term Aerobic Exercise Training on VO2max in Aging
Author(s) -
GUO HONG
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.6.a933-d
Subject(s) - aerobic exercise , medicine , vo2 max , treadmill , physical therapy , body mass index , body weight , zoology , heart rate , cardiology , blood pressure , biology
We sought to determine if the long‐term continually aerobic exercise can improve the aerobic ability in the elderly. Ten old untrained subjects (66±5 yr) attended in one year aerobic exercise training (on treadmill or/and ergometer) after signed the consent form and passed the clinic prescreen. Body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI) and maximal oxygen consumption (VO 2 max) were tested before, 6 months and 12 months later after training. The results showed that both BW and BMI of the old subjects were decreased significantly after 6 months (87.7±19.9 vs 84.9±18.3 kg, 32.2±5.0 vs 31.2±4.7kg/m 2 , P<0.05) and more after 12 months training (87.7±19.9 vs 83.8±16.1 kg, 32.2±5.0 vs 30.9±4.5kg/m 2 , P<0.05). On the other hand, the VO 2 max was increased remarkably after 6 months training (20.1±4.6 vs 22.4±4.8 ml/kg/min, P<0.05) and augmented more from the beginning (20.1±4.6 vs 24.1±6.1ml/kg/min, P<0.001) and in the latter 6 months (22.4±4.8 vs 24.1±6.1ml/kg/min, P<0.05). However, the percent increase of VO 2 max between two six‐month training periods was not obvious (12.3±1.4 vs 7.2±10.0%, P>0.05). We conclude that the long‐term aerobic exercise training is helpful to the body weight control and can improve the VO 2 max continuously in the elderly. This indicates that although increasing aging is associated with a decrease of aerobic ability, the VO 2 max is still trainable and has improvable space in the elderly over 60.