Exercícios resistidos aplicados em idosos: quais os benefícios da prática sobre a aptidão cardiorrespiratória nessa população?

Abstract

The aging process is characterized by several changes in the body, it is associated with a decrease in muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness, which further increases the incidence of sarcopenia and cardiometabolic diseases in the elderly. Cardiorespiratory fitness is a health-related component of physical fitness, requiring the integration of the circulatory, respiratory, and muscular systems to deliver oxygen to body tissues during physical activity. The maximum consumption of oxygen, VO2 max (VO2max), corresponds to the volume of oxygen consumed by the person during an aerobic physical activity, such as running, for example, and is often used to assess physical fitness, as it represents the best forms a person's aerobic capacity; peak Oxygen consumption (VO2peak) can be defined as the highest rate of oxygen consumption during exhaustive or maximal exercise. The general objective of the study was to verify the impact of a resistance exercise program on the cardiorespiratory capacity of the elderly. We sought to answer the objective of the study through a systematic review, which included randomized clinical trials searched in Embase, Pubmed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, PEDro, Scielo, Lilacs and BVS databases. The following keywords were used to search for the studies: “resistance training” and similar ones were crossed with the secondary descriptors “elderly” and “cardiorespiratory fitness”. Finally, the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) was used to verify the quality of the studies. A total of 6 studi es met the inclusion criteria and were selected for review. Such studies showed that the elderly population, when submitted to resistance training programs, obtains gains in VO2 adaptations when evaluated through cardiorespiratory tests, such as the treadmill test or similar. Furthermore, when comparing the training modes, the gain in VO2peak and VO2max was greater in the one that associated aerobic exercise with resistance training. We can conclude that elderly people undergoing resistance training improve their cardiorespiratory fitness, this exercise modality being beneficial to this population and its benefits increased when resistance training is associated with aerobic training (combined exercise).