Effects of well-rounded exercise program on overall fitness in older outpatients

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of well-rounded exercise program (WREP) on cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, body composition, and serum lipid concentration in a group of older outpatients. WREP was composed of programmed aerobic/ anaerobic accommodating circuit exercise (PACE) and flexibility exercises. Twenty-two volunteers (69.6±3.2yr) were used as subjects. All participants engaged in a supervised exercise program (50 min/day and 3 days/week) for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks of training, there was a significant increase in V̇O ₂ corresponding to lactate threshold (13.4%) but peak V̇O ₂ did not change. There were significant increases for knee extension (17.1%) and flexion (12.3%), chest pull (10.9%), low back flexion (26.6%), and shoulder press (14.6%) after training. Side stepping agility (13%), trunk flexion (129%) and trunk extension (19%) were also significantly improved. There were significant decreases in percent of body fat (-8.3%), total cholesterol (-7.1%) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (-9.7%). Blood pressure also decreased in SBP (-10 m m Hg) and DBP (-5 m m Hg). The decline in SBP was significant in thirteen hypertensive patients (-14 m m Hg) compared to non-hypertensive patients (-5 m m Hg). These results indicate that WREP elicits significant improvement of overall fitness in older outpatients.