Abstract
Purposes: This study was to explore if cycling motion training could improve cardiorespiratory endurance, lower extremity muscle strength and walking speed in older and young adults. Methods: Twenty-three healthy older adults and twenty-three healthy young adults were recruited. A stationary cycling system was used to provide exercise training at moderate exercise intensity for 30 minutes/day, 5 days a week for a month. A cycling training session consisted of 15-minute forward cycling and 15-minute backward cycling, at the pedaling rate of 60 revolutions per minute. Six-Minute Walk Test, 10-Meter Walk Test and a dynamometer test were used to assess cardiorespiratory fitness, lower extremity muscle strength, and walking speed respectively, prior to the start of the training, at the termination of the training, and at one-month follow-up. A mixed-model ANOVA was used to analyze training effects on outcome measures, with Bonferroni post-hoc test. Results: The ANOVA results showed no significant group differences for the 6-Minute Walk test and the 10-M Walk Test, while significant group differences on lower extremity strength. For both groups, significant training effects on the 6-minute Walk Test, 10-Meter Walk Test, and lower extremity strength were found at post-training (p<0.01) and follow-up (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results suggested that the cycling training protocol used in this study can effectively improve cardiorespiratory endurance, lower extremity muscle strength, and walking speed in both older and young adults and appear to be a practical exercise.