The Effect of Aquatic Exercise Program on Body Weight, Muscle Strength and Flexibility in Healthy Middle-aged Women

Kim, Jong Im; Kim, Tae Sook

Abstract

PURPOSE: Aquatic exercise program is known to have positive effects for health maintenance and improvement in inpatients with arthritis. Aquatic exercise program could be a way to obtain wellness in middle-aged women. However, there have been few studies to evaluate physical function. The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of aquatic exercise on physical health such as body weight, BMI, muscle strength (grip strength, pinch pressure), and flexibility in healthy middle-aged women. METHOD: The subjects of the study were fifty healthy middle-aged women (40-59 years) who had no experience with exercise. Twenty five subjects were assigned to the experimental group and 25 to the control group. An aquatic exercise program which consisted of approximately one hour of exercise in the water, two days per week, for six weeks was given to the experimental group. Data were gathered from October 2000 to April 2001 using a questionnaire and physical function measure tool (pinch pressure, grip strength, weight, centimeter ruler). Data were analyzed with the SPSS win 10.0 using frequency, t-test, x2 test, paired t-test, and ANCOVA. RESULT: The results of this study are as follows: There were significant differences in body weight, BMI, right, left grip strength and right and left pinch pressure between the two groups.
CONCLUSION
From these results, it is concluded that the aquatic exercise program for healthy middle-aged women can be effective in increasing physical health in these women.