Cardiorespiratory Responses of Postmenopausal Women to Different Water Exercises

The aim of the current study was to analyze and compare oxygen uptake (VO sub(2)) and heart rate (HR) in different water exercises. Eight postmenopausal women participated in a set of 4 sessions in water. Eight different exercises were randomly coupled for the 4 sessions. Each exercise was executed at a rate of 60 beats/min for 4 min with rest intervals of 30 min. A repeated-measuresANOVA and Bonferroni's post hoc test were used to test for statistical differences at a < .05. Significant differences were seen in HR and VO sub(2) between some pairs of the 8 exercises. These results suggest that water-exercise classes should be prescribed based on percentages of maximal HR or VO sub(2), not on a fixed cadence, because different exercises correspond to different percentages of maximal effort.