Achieve fitness with water aerobics
INDIANNAPOLIS-The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), in the March 2002 issue of its official monthly journal, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise® , released a study that reviewed the physiological responses of older women to a water-based exercise program. The results show significant improvement in four areas of health-related fitness, with implications for the older population in general.
“Persons who are older, overweight and/or mildly disabled often find that exercising in the water hides defects and provides support,” said Nobuo Takeshima, Ph.D., of Nagoya City University in Nagoya, Japan, lead researcher on the study. “The buoyancy and resistance of water force higher energy expenditure than similar land exercises, without straining joints or causing pain.”
The researchers designed a study that started with baseline measurements of body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, blood lipids and flexibility. Thirty women between the ages of 60 and 75 years were divided into two groups: a training group and a nonexercising control group. All participants maintained their current diets for the 12-week training period. The training group participated in a water-based exercise program, while the non-exercise control group continued its normal physical activity patterns.
The 12-week intervention consisted of an accumulated total of 70 minutes of exercise over a week’s time. The training group stretched, warmed up and then participated in such endurance exercises as walking and dancing in chest-deep water. A resistance exercise session followed by cool-down exercises rounded out the program each day. Participants wore heart-rate monitors and used water-resistance products to enable assessment and enhance range of motion, respectively.
All members of the training group completed the 12-week exercise program with no injuries. Tables accompanying the study show that no significant changes occurred in heart rate or blood pressure. Muscle strength did increase in the training group, however, as did oxygen uptake. Individuals in the exercise group showed improvement in several other health-related components of fitness, including muscle strength, flexibility, agility and loss of subcutaneous fat. The researchers noted that there were no significant differences at baseline between the training group and the non-training group in age or resting heart rate/blood pressure, nor were there differences in weight or body composition.
While strongly recommending that water-based exercise be part of a well-rounded fitness program for older adults, the researchers also noted that exercises to use back muscles should be added. Exercises that would relate directly to the performance of common activities of daily living, such as lower body strength, would merit further study to explore the effect of water-based exercise on reducing the incidence of falls and injuries in older adults.
