An unsupervised "aerobics" physical training programme in middle-aged factory workers: feasibility, validation and response
Bassey, E.J.; Patrick, J.M.; Irving, J.M.; Blecher, A.; Fentem, P.H.
European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology 52(1): 120-125
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0301-5548 PMID: 6686121 Document Number: 215173
A controlled study was made of the effects of an unsupervised walking program in 108 volunteers from among 580 middle-aged employees in a Nottingham [England, UK] light industrial company. Objective measurements of physical condition and of customary activity were made on 4 occasions at 12-wk intervals. Subjects were randomly allocated to 3 groups and encouraged to follow a walking program in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd periods of the study: no activity was prescribed in the other periods. Compliance with the program was estimated from log cards and from a week's pedometer record. Although there were no significant differences between the changes seen in subjects following the walking program and those in control subjects, there were significant small improvements in physical condition and modest increases in customary activity in those subjects actually completing the program, and in the subjects measured before and after their program, pooled without regard to the period of measurement. At least some of the increased activity is maintained for 12 wk after the program. The marginal changes suggest that the intensity of the training program as experienced by the subjects was close to the threshold for maintenance of physical condition in this age group of workers.