Load progression in strength exercises through a physical combined training program for elderly people

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate how many strength training sessions would be necessary to achieve significant increase in load. A group of 7 men and 14 women over 60 years old were recruited for the survey. The participants underwent combined training (strength and aerobic exercise), with 2 sessions of strength exercise and 3 sessions of aerobic exercise per week during 16 weeks. The strength exercise was composed of 5 exercises for the main muscle groups (knee extension, knee curl, leg press, bench press, high pull), 1 set of 15 repetitions was performed for each exercise. The aerobic exercise consisted of continuous walking/running on a treadmill, at 60% of the VO2 reserve, for 50 minutes. The loads were recorded at each training session. Participants were encouraged to always score between 7 and 8 on the effort perception scale (0 to 10). In the present study we observed that both genders had an increase in the amount of load used. The combined training protocol is capable of increase the load in the strength training in the first 8 training sessions differentianting between exercises and gender.

Comprehensive Time-Course Effects of Combined Training on Hypertensive Older Adults: A Randomized Control Trial

“…We attribute the considerable increase in cardiorespiratory fitness primarily to the higher volume of aerobic training proportional to strength training within the Training program (nearly 85% of the time); but also, to the supervision of the training sessions ensuring adherence to the prescribed training intensity. Although, there was a continuous increase in strength load in all exercises throughout the 16 weeks of exercise program [ 22 ], the maximum strength tests detected only small strength improvements. The small increase might be due to the low volume and frequency of strength training used in this study compared to others [ 23 , 24 ].…”