Background: Increasing evidence suggests that prolonged sedentary bouts [1] and/or few breaks in sedentary time [2] may damage metabolic health, independently of total sedentary time and moderate–vigorous physical activity. Accumulative exercise (distributing exercise training in the morning and in the afternoon) could be a good strategy to break and reduce sedentary time in older adults, especially in the less active time-slots. However, scarce studies have investigated whether accumulative proposals convey some advantage compared to similar doses of continuous exercise regarding physical function in sedentary older people. In addition, it remains unknown whether accumulated training enhances, more than does continuous training, the benefits in functional outcomes or health-related quality of life. Objective: The present study aimed to analyze the impact of a Multicomponent Training (MCT) program in a group of sedentary older adults, comparing two different dose-distributions. Method: In this quasi-experimental and longitudinal study, we recruited twenty-four sedentary older adults (71.75 ± 4.51 years) who were assigned to two groups of the EFAM-UV© program (a MCT program based on the gait-retraining and improving postural control with enriched environments that combining strength and cardiovascular proposals under the dual-tasking methodology) [3]. The continuous group (CMCT) trained for 60 min/session in the morning, while the accumulated group (AMCT) performed the same duration and intensity of exercise, but it was distributed twice a day (30 min in the morning and 30 more in the afternoon). All the participants attended voluntarily the program and gave their written consent for this study approved by the ethics committee of the University of Valencia (H1484058781638). Results: After 15 weeks of intervention (2 days/week), Bonferroni post-hoc comparisons revealed significant (p < 0.001) and similar large improvements in both groups in lower limb strength. In addition, large gains were found in preferred walking speed and instrumental daily life activity, which were higher for CMCT and AMCT respectively; improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, which were moderate for CMCT and large for AMCT; and medium and similar improvements in agility in both groups. Health-related quality of life showed a trend to significance only when the whole sample was considered. None of the training protocols had impact on the executive function. Discussion: Our results confirm the importance of strength and cardiovascular training in order to maintain autonomy with aging and gives a hint to health fitness professionals and personal trainers about different functional changes in accumulated or continuous MCT programs [3]. As walking programs [4], starting a multicomponent training in sedentary older adults improves physical function regardless of the type of dose-distribution performed. However, the slightly positive differences of accumulated strategies may also be related with benefits in other variables (as lipid profile or body composition) since helping to break afternoon sedentary behaviors.
Physiology 2021 (2021) Proc Physiol Soc 48, PC036
Poster Communications: Continuous compared to accumulated multicomponent-training on physical function and health-related quality of life in sedentary elderly
Pablo Monteagudo1, 2, Ainoa Roldán1, Ana Cordellat1, Jordi Monferrer-Marín1, M Carmen Gómez-Cabrera3, Cristina Blasco-Lafarga1
1 Sport Performance and Physical Research Group (UIRFIDE), Physical Education and Sport Department, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain 2 Department of Education and Specific Didactics, Jaume I University, Castellón de la Plana, Spain 3 Physiology Department, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
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Where applicable, experiments conform with Society ethical requirements.