Physical conditioning of less fit adults by use of leg weight loading.

Physical conditioning using weighted ankle spats was evaluated in eight men in the age range 33 to 45 years (mean, 38.4). Evaluation consisted of pretraining and posttraining heart rate (HR) and oxygen uptake (VO2) responses to five submaximal work loads: cycling six minutes at 600 kilopond meter per minute (kpm/min); level walking for ten minutes at both 4.0 and 5.6 km/hr with and without a 1.5-kg weight spat added to each ankle. After the initial baseline evaluation, subjects wore 1.5-kg weight spats on both ankles for three weeks and were reevaluated; during the next three-week period weight was increased to 2.25 kg per ankle. Following the six-week evaluation period, subjects did not wear ankle spats, and detraining was evaluated after three weeks. A control group of four subjects was evaluated at these same submaximal work loads on three different occasions with three-week periods between evaluations. The experimental group wore the spats about 13.5 hours per day and averaged 6.85 km/day (4.25 miles per day) during training. After six weeks of training, submaximal HR decreased 6 to 9 beats per minute (P smaller than 0.05) from pretraining values for all five submaximal work loads; predicted VO2 max and predicted work capacity to achieve a HR of 170 beats per minute increased by approximately 10%. Detraining submaximal HR responses increased slightly, but not significantly, from post six-week training responses. Control group submaximal responses were unchanged between evaluations. It was concluded that individuals who initially possess a low level of cardiorespiratory fitness may have a low threshold for training. Thus, leg weight conditioning may be extremely useful for rehabilitation of patients and for sedentary middle-aged men as special adaptation prio to more high intensity training.