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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1703
igaa057.1703
Abstracts
Session 3026 (Paper)
Physical Activity and Exercise
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Exercise Strategies for Optimizing Aerobic Capacity and Skeletal Muscle Performance in Older Adults
Tavoian Dallin 1 Russ David 2 Clark Brian 1 1 
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States
2 
University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”528 528
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Most older adults do not exercise regularly. Among those who do, the majority only perform one type of exercise, and— as such— are either not getting the benefits of endurance exercise or resistance exercise. The aim of this pilot study was to determine which standalone exercise strategy has the greatest effect on both cardiorespiratory and lower-extremity muscular function in insufficiently active older adults 60 to 75 years of age (N = 14). Participants were randomly assigned to either resistance training (RT, n=5), moderate intensity continuous training on a stationary bicycle (MICT, n=4), or high-intensity interval training on a stationary bicycle (HIIT, n=5) for supervised exercise sessions three times per week for 12 weeks. Maximal oxygen consumption increased a comparable amount in all groups (11.9±11.2% for HIIT vs. 8.0±14.8% for MICT vs 9.8±5.7% for RT). Leg extensor power did not change in the HIIT group (-0.34±5.2%), but increased by 5.2±9.7% in the MICT group and 14.5±26.1% in the RT group. Leg extensor strength decreased by 1.7±22.1% in the HIIT group and 0.6±6.4% in the MICT group, but increased by 27.3±21.2% in the RT group. These findings demonstrate that RT results in improved lower-extremity strength and power, as well as improvements in maximal aerobic capacity comparable to MICT and HIIT in older adults. Thus, RT should be promoted as an essential exercise strategy for older adults, particularly for individuals who are inactive or that are only performing one type of exercise regularly.