Physiological changes in general endurance capacity in different ages and stages of aerobic exercise in Thai males

Abstract

This study was to compare the cardiopulmonary performance of aerobictrained and untrained Thai male and determine the declining rate of their aerobic parameters by aging. The Vo₂max, anaerobic threshold and time constant of oxygen uptake kinetics (τ) of 51 aerobic-trained (17-74 year-old) and 53 untrained (20-83 year-old) Thai men were measured by direct gas analysis during exercise (Spiro-Ergometry). All parameters were declining significantly with age in aerobic-trained and unrained subjects at different rat (p<0.001). The values of Vo₂max and anaerobic threshold of aerobic-traine subjects were significantly higher than of untrained ones (p<0.05, p<0.01 and p<0.001), in contrary to the values of τ (p<0.01 and p<0.001) In aerobic-trained group the linear regression lines and correlations of Vo₂max, anaerobic threshold and τ with age were Y = 74.33-0.58X, r = -0.86 (p<0.001), Y = 56.73-0.52, r = -0.08 (p<0.001) and Y = 32.91 + 0.41X, r = 0.61 (p<0.001), respectively. The linear regression lines and correlations of anaerobic threshold and τ with age were Y = 42.62-0.42X, r = 0.78 (p<0.001) and Y = 29.15 + 0.83X, r = 0.80 (p<p<0.01), respectively in untrained groups. This study revealed that the declining rate of cardiopulmonary performance by aging could be decelerated by optimal level of aerobic-trained.