For a comparative study between swimming in swimwear (control-sw) and swimming in clothes (clothes-sw), oxygen uptake (VO₂) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured. The subjects were six male members of a university swimming team. Three swimming strokes - the breaststroke, the front crawl stroke and the elementary backstroke - were applied. With regards to clothes-sw, swimmers wore T-shirts, sportswear (shirt and pants) over swimwear and running shoes. In both cases of control-sw and clothes-sw, the VO₂ was increased exponentially with increased swimming speed. The VO₂ of the subjects during the clothed tests did not exceed 1.4 times of that in the case of control-sw at swimming speeds below 0.3 m/s. As swimming speeds increased, VO₂ difference in both cases increased. Consequently, VO₂ in the clothed tests was equal to 1.5-1.6 times and 1.5-1.8 times of that in the swimwear tests at speeds of 0.5 and 0.7 m/s, respectively. At speeds below 0.6 m/s in clothes-sw, the breaststroke showed lower VO₂ than the front crawl stroke, and the elementary backstroke showed higher VO₂ than the other two swimming strokes. RPE increased linearly with %peak VO₂. In addition, any RPE differences among the three swimming strokes were not shown in the control-sw tests. At an exercise intensity above 60%peak VO₂, clothed swimmers showed slightly higher RPE in the front crawl stroke compared to that in the two other swimming strokes.

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Land stretching exercises are common exercise therapy for low back pain (LBP) patients. However, recently, water exercise became a popular rehabilitation for LBP patients, and many studies have reported the physical benefits of water exercise. This study compared the psychological and endocrinogical effects of water exercise and land stretching by measuring salivary cortisol concentration and anxiety in chronic LBP patients. Seven volunteers (4 female and 3 male, mean age: 61.9 ± 11.8 yrs) who suffered from chronic LBP (pain duration: 4.5 ± 1.3 yrs) participated in the sessions of water exercise and land stretching programs (90 minutes) on different days. The land stretching program consisted mainly of stretching, and the water exercise program contained not only stretching, but also walking, jogging, muscle strengthening, swimming and relaxation. After both exercise programs, the subjective pain scores of the patients showed a significant decrease. Salivary cortisol concentrations were also significantly decreased during pre- to post-90 minute water exercise. (P<0.05). With land stretching, salivary cortisol concentrations also decreased significantly (P<0.05). State anxiety decreased significantly (P<0.05) after both water exercise and land stretching compared with pre-exercise scores (P<0.05), though no significant changes were found in the patients’ trait anxiety scores. No significant correlation was found between salivary cortisol concentrations and state anxiety with water exercise and land stretching. The findings of the present study suggested both exercises showed similar tendencies, and had decreased salivary cortisol level and state anxiety.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of exercise experienced in the life stages on climacteric symptoms for females after menopause. Four-hundred and eight postmenopausal women completed a questionnaire. The results were as follows: (1) Mean age at menopause ± standard deviation was 50.1 ± 0.5 and did not show a significant relationship with the degree of exercise in the life stages. (2) The degree of climacteric symptoms had a significant relationship, or a tendency toward a significant relationship, with the degree of exercise in and after the 40’s; and the greater the degree of exercise, the lesser the degree of climacteric symptoms. (3) Kupperman’s index was found to be, or tended to be, significantly related to the degree of exercise in and after the 30’s. Those who exercised heavily in their 30’s showed a significantly lower Kupperman’s index. Those who answered that they had exercised “moderately” in their “40’s to menopause” and “menopause to 60 years old” tended to have the lowest index. (4) Exercise experience in the life stages was negatively correlated, in particular, to psychosomatic symptoms among the 3 climacteric symptom categories. This negative correlation tended to be higher in those who answered that they had done “less exercise” in and after their 30’s. (5) A significant relationship was noted between the degree of exercise in the 30’s and “weakness” in Kupperman’s index, and between exercise in and after the 40’s and “nervousness” and “melancholia”. Therefore, it is suggested that exercising “moderately” from the subjective viewpoint in the climacteric period may alleviate psychosomatic symptoms.

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The present experiment investigated the effects of skin pressure produced by a body compensatory brassiere on defecation activity. Seven healthy females (11-41 yrs) volunteered as participants, being free of medication and constipation. The experiment lasted 3 weeks. The participants did not wear the body compensatory brassiere for the first week, wore it during waking hours for the second week, and again did not wear it for the third week. Whenever they desired to defecate, they did so and then weighted the amount of feces immediately by themselves. Eating times, daily amounts of foods and drinks, their menu, work intensity and its duration, retiring and rising time were controlled to be as similar as possible from day to day. The main finding was that the amount of feces was significantly smaller during the second week (wearing the body compensatory brassiere) than the first and third weeks (not wearing the body compensatory brassiere). These observations are discussed in terms of the suppression of the parasympathetic nervous system and intestine motility, and the delayed transit time in the large intestine.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the physiological responses and RPE during water walking using the Flowmill, which has a treadmill at the base of a water flume, in order to obtain basic data for prescribing water walking for people of middle and advanced age. Twenty healthy female volunteers with an age of 59.1 ± 5.2 years took part in this study. They belonged to the same swimming club and regularly swam and exercised in water. Walking in water took place in the Flowmill. Subjects completed four consecutive bouts of 4 min duration at progressively increasing speeds (20, 30, 40 and 50 m/min) with 1 min rest between each bout. In addition, water velocity was adjusted to the walking speed of each bout. Subjects were instructed to swing both arms in order to maintain their balance during walking in water. The water depth was to the level of the xiphoid process and the water temperature was 30.31 ± 0.08°C. Both heart rate (HR) and oxygen uptake (VO₂) increased exponentially as walking speed increased. HR was 125 ± 15 bpm, and VO₂ was 18.10 ± 2.72 ml/kg·min^-1 during walking in water at 50 m/min, which was the highest speed. The exercise intensity at this speed was equivalent to 5.2 ± 0.8 Mets. The relationship between HR and VO₂ during walking in water showed a highly significant linear relationship in each subject. There was also a highly significant linear relationship in the mean HR and VO₂ of all subjects. Blood lactate concentration (LA) measured at rest and immediately after each bout was 1.1 ± 0.4 mmol/l at rest, 1.0 ± 0.2 mmol/l at 20 m/min, 1.0 ± 0.3 mmol/l at 30 m/min, 1.1 ± 0.2 mmol/l at 40 m/min, and 2.4 ± 0.7 mmol/l at 50 m/min. LA at 50 m/min was significantly higher than at rest and at the other speeds. The relationship between HR and RPE during walking in water showed a highly significant linear relationship. The relationship between walking speed and energy expenditure calculated from VO₂ and the respiratory exchange ratio (R) showed a high significant exponential relationship. These results suggested that HR and RPE can be effective indices for exercise prescription during Flowmill walking as with land walking.

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