高齢者における森歩き運動と水中運動の健康増進効果

抄録

  The purpose of this study was to compare health promotion effects between walking exercise in a forest and aquatic exercise in a heated indoor pool for 6 weeks for healthy adults aged 50 - 83 years. Each 12 subjects were participated in the forest walking or aquatic exercises for about 30 or 60 minutes, respectively, three times a week. Both exercises were performed with heart rate during them keeping under that at anaerobic threshold, which were preliminarily measured. Before and after the exercises for 6 weeks, various physiological parameters were measured. In addition, subjects answered questionnaires of training effects and activities of daily living. The subjects participating in the aquatic exercise tended to have low physical fitness and anxiety for daily living. Health promotion effects common to the forest walking and aquatic exercises were the decrease in percent body fat, increases in muscle strength of plantar flexor and 1-kg leg power, and improvement of anticipatory postural controllability. Specific effects were the improvement of lateral stability during single-leg stance in the forest walking exercise, and that of range of motion on hip joint in standing, muscle strength of dorsal flexor, and aerobic work capacity in the aquatic exercise.