Effects of aerobic training on exercise tolerance and echocardiographic dimensions in untrained postmenopausal women

• Published in: The American heart journal Vol. 112; no. 3; pp. 561 - 567
• Main Authors: Morrison, Douglass A., Boyden, Thomas W., Pamenter, Richard W., Freund, Beau J., Stini, William A., Harrington, Richard, Wilmore, Jack H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Mosby, Inc 01.09.1986; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adaptation, Physiological; Applied physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Body Weight; Clinical Trials as Topic; Echocardiography; Female; Heart - physiology; Heart Rate; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Humans; Medical sciences; Menopause; Middle Aged; Physical Education and Training; Random Allocation; Respiration; Stroke Volume; Heart; Physical exercise; Human; Postmenopause
• ISSN: 0002-8703; 1097-6744
• DOI: 10.1016/0002-8703(86)90522-3

The cardiovascular effects of physical training were evaluated in a controlled trial involving 32 healthy, untrained, postmenopausal women. The subjects were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise training program or a control group. The exercise group participated in at least three 40-minute supervised sessions per week for 8 months. Twenty-five subjects completed the study: eight in the control group and 17 in the training group. The training group had a significant increase over the training period in maximal oxygen consumption (27.3 ± 4.6 mg/kg/min vs 30.8 ± 5.4 ml/kg/min, p < 0.05) and maximal treadmill exercise duration (9.8 ± 2.6 minutes vs 11.3 ± 2.2 minutes; p < 0.05). The control group had no significant change in maximal treadmill exercise duration (9.0 ± 1.2 minutes vs 9.2 ± 1.4 minutes) but had a slight increase in maximal oxygen consumption (23.7 ± 3.4 ml/kg/min vs 24.4 ± 4.1 ml/kg/min, p < 0.05). The training group had significant increases in M-mode echocardiographic left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (4.6 ± 0.6 cm vs 4.8 ± 0.4 cm, p < 0.05) and calculated left ventricular ejection fraction (0.66 ± 0.14 vs 0.74 ± 0.12, p < 0.05). M-mode echocardiograms demonstrated no significant change in left ventricular dimensions or wall thickness in the control group. In this group of untrained postmenopausal women, a training effect was associated with enhanced resting left ventricular ejection fraction and increased resting left ventricular end-diastolic dimension.