ABSTRACT
The purposes of this study were to develop a low-impact underwater exercise program that can be implemented at water temperatures around 40 degrees C, an environment commonly available in many hot-spring bathing facilities in Japan, and further to verify the effectiveness of the program by experiments.<br>This program assumes three patterns of bathing, i. e., foot bathing, hip bathing, and chest bathing, considering the designs of bathtubs in such facilities. It also incorporates five categories of underwater exercise, i. e., warming up, toning, flexibility exercise, relaxation, and cooling down, for each pattern of bathing.<br>The underwater exercise program was tried by ten elderly female subjects (aged 67±5).<br>The results indicated significant differences in rectal temperature and heart rate from those in plain-water bathing but with little physiologic damage. Therefore, these results suggest that the aged can participat in the newly developed underwater exercise program while they are bathing in hot springs.
ABSTRACT
The under-water exercise is a specific sports.Because of the different of pressure,buoyancy,resistance and heat conductivity between water and land,The effect of under-water exercise on body's physiological function was different from the land.It has been evaluate in this paper that the characteristic of physiological function and regularity of energy metabolism in the under-water exercise
ABSTRACT
We performed electromyographic observations of M. deltoideus, M. biceps, M. triceps brachii, and extensor and flexor muscles of the right forearms of four healthy males (22.3 years old average) during various exercises of the right upper extremity on ground and in water. All electromyographic activities were examined through integral analysis. During exercise in water, the proximal part of the upper arm showed a significantly lower electric discharge than that for the exercises on the ground (p<0.05). Furthermore, forearm muscles showed significantly higher electrical discharge than that for the same exercise on the ground (p<0.05). We investigated the effects of therapeutic exercises in water in a temperature-adjusted pool on 15 female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (average 48.0 years old, Stage 2.3, and Class 1.9). The respiratory function, dorsal muscle power, power around a knee, grasping power, elasticity of the trunk and lower extremities, Lansbury index, and Japan Orthopedic Association's judgment score for rheumatoid arthritic knees were improved significantly (p<0.05) after an eight-week course of therapeutic exercises in water (two session a week). The result of a psychological test showed that their mental conditions were significantly improved (p<0.01) by therapeutic exercises in water. No aggravation of inflammatory reactions was observed in serological examinations before and after the exercise. We concluded that therapeutic exercise in water was an effective treatment method for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
ABSTRACT
We subjected six male lumbago patients (average age of 58.2 years) to underwater therapeutic exercise with and without a hydropower system (Flow Machine (FM)) twice a week for 4 weeks (a total of 10 hours) at an interval of 10 weeks between the two therapeutic sessions. The FM produced running water (average speed of 0.9meter/second) in a temperature-controlled pool. The water temperature was kept to about 30°C, The subjects received a total of four examinations before and after these two therapeutic sessions. We compared the results of these two therapeutic sessions (under-water therapeutic exercise with FM and without FM) and obtained the conclusions described below.<br>Improvements of obesity, anaerobic power, power around knee, vital capacity and total score in lumbago treatment (results of Japanese Orthopaedic Association) were observed more significantly (p<0.05) and rapidly with the use of FM than without FM. Further, increased HDL-cholesterol and decreased free fatty acid in blood were observed significantly (p<0.05) only for FM use.<br>It was suggested that the resistance of running water, vibratile massage effect, and heat action of produced supersonic waves promoted the above improvements. We concluded that the hydropower system was useful in underwater therapeutic exercise on lumbago patients.