Background/Purpose While the Chinese women in general are physical active and many do morning exercises, strength training is often omitted from their exercise routines. The purpose of this study was to design an 8-week strength program to be implemented at the community level and examine its effectiveness.
Methods Forty-four 50~70 years old women were recruited from Shanghai, China and randomly assigned into Strength Training Group (STG, n = 24) or Control Group (CG, n = 20). Before the intervention, their demographic information was collected and height, weight and physical fitness/function were measured. STG then went through the strength training program, 3 times/week, for 8 weeks. The program included 12 chair and 6 dumbbell exercises and was supervised by an experienced trainer. A self-rated fatigue questionnaire was used to control exercise intensity. At the end of 8th week, physical fitness and function measures were re-measured. Within-group changes and between-group differences were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA.
Analysis/Results There was no difference between STG and CG in pretesting. After the intervention, muscular strength, reaction time, QUI (Quantitative Ultrasound)/stiffness, and BMD (Bone Mineral Density) in STG were significantly improved, although no difference was found in balance and curl-ups measures (see selected post-test results below; *p< 0.05, **p< 0.01). STG CG Grip Strength (kg) 25.88±4.14** 21.94±4.49* Back Strength (kg) 34.91±8.33** 25.05±11.21 Balance (sec) 6.88±4.08 10.41±10.61 QUI/stiffness 64.83±13.73* 61.83±15.73 BMD (g/cm2) 0.334±0.087* 0.315±0.010
Conclusions A strength intervention can effectively improve the Chinese women's physical fitness and function. The program developed is practicable and effective.