Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine

Para-athletes or athletes with disabilities

Paralympic sports include a wide group of athletic activities for individuals who have disabilities and who participate in diverse levels of competition.

The Paralympic Movement began in 1888 in Berlin with the founding of the first sports clubs for people with hearing impairments.

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Original Article

Pre-Participation Physical Fitness does not Influence Adherence to a Supervised Exercise Program

Fábio Akio Nishijuka et al. Christina Grüne de Souza e Silva Carlos Vieira Duarte Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo

Abstract

Background:

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation tends to reduce mortality. However, it requires medium/long-term adherence to regular physical exercise. It is relevant to identify the variables that affect adherence to an supervised exercise program (SEP).

Objective:

To evaluate the influence of pre-participation levels of aerobic and non-aerobic physical fitness components in medium-term adherence to SEP.

Methods:

A total of 567 SEP participants (65 ± 12 years) (68% men) were studied. Participants adherent to the program for less than 6 months (48%) (non-adherent – NAD) were compared with 52% of participants who were adherent for 6 months or more (adherents – AD). In the non-aerobic fitness, flexibility (FLX) (Flexitest) and muscle power (MPW)/body weight in standing rowing (watts/kg) were evaluated while aerobic fitness was obtained by direct measure of VO₂max/body weight (VO₂). These measurements were normatized for sex and age based on percentiles (P) (P-FLX/P-MPW) of reference data or percentages of predicted (P-VO₂). Additionally, AD and NAD with extreme results (tertiles) were simultaneously compared for the three variables.

Results:

There was no difference between AD and NAD for non-aerobic results, in median [P25-P75], P-FLX: 30 [13-56] and 31 [9-52], respectively, (p = 0.69) and P-MPW: 34 [17-58] and 36 [16-62], respectively (p = 0.96), and for aerobic results (mean ± standard error) P-VO₂ (75.9 ± 1.3% and 75.0 ± 1.3%, respectively) (p = 0.83). When comparing extreme tertiles, a difference was found for P-MPW in the lower tertile only, with a slight advantage of AD over NAD- 9 [5-16] versus 4 [1-11] (p = 0.04).

Conclusion:

Although awareness of the pre-participation levels of aerobic and non-aerobic physical fitness components is useful for individualized exercise prescription, these variables do not seem to influence medium-term adherence to SEP.