The effects of swimming exercise on the bone mineral density (BMD) and bone metabolism of postmenopausal women were ascertained by comparing the data of 10 women who belonged to a swimming club (swimming group) with an average age of 63.2±5.9 years and those of 10 women who belonged to an art (handicrafts) club (art group) with an average age of 64.3±5.3 years. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was performed to measure the BMD of the whole body and the proximal femur, and a biochemical test (bone metabolism markers) was conducted to measure the levels of serum calcium, urinary creatinine, urinary calcium, and urinary deoxypyridinoline. The results were as follows:
1) While the whole body BMD for the swimming group was higher than that for the art group, there was no significant intergroup difference.
2) The leg muscle endurance for the swimming group was significantly higher than that for the art group.
3) The BMD of the proximal femur Ward's triangle tended to be maintained for the swimming group when compared to the art group, regardless of body weight.
These findings suggest that swimming exercise maintains leg muscle endurance and affects the proximal femur region in postmenopausal women. It is extremely important to consider how the elderly might incorporate swimming exercise into their daily life and maintain their physical fitness and walking ability.

View full abstract

The aim of present study was to quantify the Waving techniques, such as Waving rate (WR; Waving per second), Waving length (WL; distance per Waving), and swimming time (ST), in the finalists and the non-finalists in Finswimming world championships in the 50 m Surface. The subjects were 5 finalist males and 5 non- finalist males in 12^th Finswimming world championships in the 50 m Surface. ST of the finalists was faster than that of the non-finalists (16.37 sec vs. 17.91 sec, P < 0.01), and WL of the finalists was longer than that of the non- finalists (1.16 vs. 1.06 meter, P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the finalists and the non- finalists with regard to WR (2.65 vs. 2.64 Hz). There was a significant negative relationship between ST and WL (r = -0.88, P < 0.01). However, there was no significant relationship between ST and WR (r = 0.32, P = 0.38). Furthermore, WR was a significantly correlated with the residual error of ST, calculated from the regression analysis for the relationship between WL and ST (r = -0.67, P = 0.03). These results suggest that WL is concluded to be an important factor that influences ST for elite athlete in the 50 m SF.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify a characteristic of “Apnea Turn” which is a new turning method under water and to compare with a conventional turning method, “Open Turn”. The subjects were elite competitive swimmers (n=10), whose specialties were butterfly and breast stroke. The turn phase was defined as a section from 5m front the wall and 5m after the wall. As results, the time of turn phase revealed that Apnea Turn tends to be shorter than Open Turn (5.55± 0.27s and 5.62±0.33s respectively). The time of turn -in- phase and turn -out- phase of turn phase in Apnea Turn was shorter than Open Turn, but pivot phase was significantly longer than Open Turn. The push-off velocity of Apnea Turn was higher than Open Turn significantly (p<0.01). These results suggest that Apnea Turn will be able to contribute to improve the swimming performance and then it may become prospective a new turning method. Therefore, this Apnea Turn will be a new turning method. For future studies, it is important to investigate the motion of pivot and to reduction in pivot phase.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract