Why the study?
Does running in water while wearing a buoyant vest elicit similar physiologic responses compared to treadmill running in uninjured runners?
Does running in water while wearing a buoyant vest elicit similar physiologic responses compared to treadmill running in uninjured runners?
Water running elicits a lower metabolic cost than treadmill running at similar perceived exertion, suggesting it may help lessen deconditioning in injured athletes but is not metabolically equivalent.
May aid deconditioning prevention during injury rehab; leaves open metabolic equivalence and applicability beyond uninjured runners.
In brief: The physiologic responses to running on a treadmill and to running in water while wearing a buoyant vest were compared in seven uninjured runners. Ventilation, oxygen uptake, and respiratory quotient were significantly higher during treadmill running, whereas heart rate and perceived exertion were not significantly different for the two forms of exercise. Water running elicited a 36% lower metabolic cost than treadmill running despite the athletes' efforts to maintain a similar level of exertion. The results suggest that water running may help lessen the rate of deconditioning of injured athletes who must suspend their regular forms of exercise, but they fail to show that the metabolic cost of water running is significantly greater than that of treadmill running.
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Bishop et al. (1989) studied this question.
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