Acute Cardiopulmonary Response to Interval and Continuous Exercise in Older Adults: A Randomized Crossover Study

Linares, AM, Goncin, N, Stuckey, M, Burgomaster, KA, and Dogra, S. Acute cardiopulmonary response to interval and continuous exercise in older adults: a randomized crossover study. J Strength Cond Res 36(10): 2920–2926, 2022—The purpose of this study was to compare the cardiopulmonary response with different exercise protocols in healthy older adults. Subjects ( n = 30; 15 women, age: 69.6 ± 6.2 years) completed an exercise test (MAX) on a cycle ergometer to determine maximal oxygen consumption (V̇ o 2 max) and peak power output (PPO). Exercise sessions were randomized: high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE, 1 minute 90% PPO followed by 1 minute 10% PPO, ×10), moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MOD, 20 minutes at 50% PPO), and sprint-interval exercise (SPRT, 20 seconds “all-out” sprints followed by 2 minutes at 50 W, ×3). V̇ o 2 max was highest during MAX in men (MAX: 28.2 ± 6.3; MOD: 22.6 ± 4.5; HIIE: 26.7 ± 5.7; SPRT: 26.0 ± 4.3; F (2.1) = 28.6, p = 0.0001, = 0.67), whereas similar peaks were observed between HIIE, SPRT, and MAX in women (MAX: 21.9 ± 6.1; MOD: 18.9 ± 4.5; HIIE: 21.6 ± 5.3; SPRT: 21.7 ± 3.9; F (2.2) = 10.2, p = 0.0001, = 0.42). The peak heart rate (b·min −1 ) was similar across all exercise sessions in both men (MAX: 148.1 ± 17.1; MOD: 132.6 ± 21.8; HIIE: 144.9 ± 16.6; SPRT: 148.6 ± 14.2; F (1.9) = 9.1, p = 0.001, = 0.41) and women (MAX: 148.1 ± 13.1; MOD: 136.3 ± 18.2; HIIE: 147.0 ± 16.4; SPRT: 148.5 ± 18.0; F (2.0) = 5.3, p = 0.011, = 0.27). The %V̇ o 2 at which sessions were performed varied significantly across individual subjects. In conclusion, older women work at near maximal V̇ o 2 when performing HIIE and SPRT; this has implications for exercise testing and prescription protocols in older adults.