This is a review of an article from International Journal of Exercise Science regarding older adults (>65) who have maintained an aerobic exercise regimen at least 4 times a week for the last 20 plus years. In my previous article I reviewed how to maintain Vo2 max and compared which exercises had the most benefit towards that end. In this article we will review the benefits of aerobic and resistance exercise after two decades, this is a compilation of 10 articles that fit that scenario.
"Meeting ACSM’s guidelines for minimum weekly training volume, with a combination of cardiorespiratory and resistance exercise, is recommended to achieve the full health benefits of long-term exercise participation in older age."
All healthy adults aged 18–65 years should participate in moderate intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes on five days per week, or vigorous intensity aerobic activity for a minimum of 20 minutes on three days per week.
Every adult should perform activities that maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance for a minimum of two days per week.
Results
The study took into account training experience, body compostition, and fitness evaluatons, 265 individuals were included. . The compostion of the tested individuals were primarily male with only 10% being female, ethnicity was not noted.
Training experience included individuals with at least 20 years, with at least two of the studies including pre training and post 2 decades of training, the others only post.
The average aerobic exercise included at least 2.8- 10 hours of training (running, swimming, cycling, walking, cross-country skiing, track and field, and orienteering). The resistance trained volunteers included at least 2-3 times per week.
Body composition was measured with skin fold and Dexa primarily, followed body mass index and fat free mass.
Fitness was compared to sedentary adults revealing a smaller decline in actively trained adults using VO2 max measurements.
"Long-term exercise training variably suppresses age-related changes in cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition. Both endurance- and resistance-trained older adults had greater knee extensor strength and lower percent body fat while only endurance trained older adults showed greater cardiorespiratory fitness. "
One finding from this article is that cardiorespiratory fitness did not necessarily increase with time spent above the minimum recommendation. Secondly, an increase in VO2 max is inversely related to mortality. For every 1 mg/ kg/ min increase in VO2 max there is a 9% reduction in mortality. Another significant finding is such that individuals that are primarily resistance trained had similar cardiorespiratory findings of sedentary adults. Those that participated in both cardio and strength training had both increased respiratory effects and stronger lower extremities.
The above findings reveal the importance of following both a cardio and strength training regimen to maintain a healthy cardiorespiratory fitness through the decades.
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