Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance exercise at an intensity corresponding to anaerobic threshold (AT) on improvement of cardiorespiratory fitness not only in stroke patients below 59 years of age but also in those who were above 60 years. Twenty-two patients who performed the endurance exercise were divided into two groups by age at the time of starting the endurance exercise: one group consisted of 9 subjects who were below 59 years of age and the other group consisted of 13 subjects who were above 60 years of age. AT was adopted as an index of cardiorespiratory fitness in this study. Endurance exercise was performed on a bicycle ergometer for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week and for 4 weeks. Intensity of endurance exercise was determined based on AT detected before taking the endurance exercise. Pre- and post-exercise AT in each group was compared by means of Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Improvement of AT after endurance exercise for 4 weeks were statistically significant in both groups. This result suggested that endurance exercise based on AT was effective in the improvement of cardiorespiratory fitness both in patients with stroke who were below 59 years and also in those who were above 60 years of age.
