| Duration | Land-based exercise training programme | Water-based exercise training programme | |
| Warm-up | 8 min | Upper and lower limb aerobics, including punching and kicking; marching (stationary); breathing control; lower limb stretches | Upper and lower limb aerobics, including punching and kicking; jogging (stationary); breathing control; lower limb stretches |
| Lower limb endurance | 20 min | Walking (over ground or treadmill) | Stationary and travelling (forwards, sideways and backwards): jogging (narrow legs, wide legs and high knees); straight leg kick with arm reach to opposite toe; straight leg shuffle; opposite elbow to opposite high knee; heel kicks to bottom |
| Rest period | 3 min | Breathing control and hydration | Breathing control and hydration |
| Lower limb endurance | 15 min | Cycling (stationary or dual-action bike) | Seated leg cycling on flotation device (stationary and travelling forwards, backwards and sideways); addition of multidirectional arm movements (scooping, paddling and breaststroke); reclined suspended cycling; kicking (prone and supine); standing single-leg cycling; karate kicks (single and double leg, forwards, sideways, backwards and alternating side-to-side and front-to-back); frog jumps; bunny hops; star jumps; cross-country ski |
| Rest period | 2 min | Breathing control | Breathing control |
| Upper limb endurance | 10 min | Hand-held dumb-bells (commencing at 0.5 kg); three unsupported arm exercises [24]: three sets of 10 repetitions | Hand-held plastic bottles or foam dumb-bells (commencing with 600-mL plastic bottle or single-width foam dumb-bells); slight variation of land-based unsupported arm exercises [24] (i.e. eccentric contraction against buoyancy): three sets of 10 repetitions |
| Cool down | 2 min | Upper limb and thoracic cage stretches; breathing control | Upper limb and thoracic cage stretches; breathing control |
| Exercise progression | Aimed at maintaining intensity of dyspnoea and perceived exertion ratings of 3–5 on modified Borg category ratio 0–10 scale Included increasing treadmill speed and incline, stationary cycle resistance and weight of dumb-bells | Aimed at maintaining intensity of dyspnoea and perceived exertion ratings of 3–5 on modified Borg category ratio 0–10 scale Included increasing water turbulence, resistance and buoyancy by increasing effort, speed, range of motion, length of lever arm and increasing foam dumb-bell density and surface area |