Elsevier

Respiratory Medicine

Volume 101, Issue 11, November 2007, Pages 2297-2304
Respiratory Medicine

Supervised high intensity continuous and interval training vs. self-paced training in COPD

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2007.06.017Get rights and content
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Summary

Background

Endurance training is an effective component of pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD. Controversy exists regarding whether different modalities of supervised exercise training (continuous (C) or interval (I)) or self-paced (S) programs are equally beneficial.

Methods

Seventy-one patients with COPD (average FEV1=55% predicted) were assigned to 8 weeks of C, I or S training, 45 min/session, 3 times/week. Group C (n=22) exercised at 80% of pre-training peak work rate in an incremental cycle ergometer test. In group I (n=17), training consisted of 30 min of cycling 2 min at 90% followed by 1 min at 50% peak work rate bracketed by 7.5 min at 50% peak work rate. The S group (n=32) was instructed to cycle, climb stairs and walk in their home with the same periodicity and time intervals.

Results

Improvement in incremental test peak work rate was significant in both C and I groups, but not in S. Peak oxygen uptake and lactic acidosis threshold improved significantly in the supervised groups, but differences among groups did not achieve significance. Scores in an activity questionnaire improved in all groups without significant differences among groups.

Conclusions

In COPD patients, continuous and interval training have similar physiologic effects; by some measures of endurance exercise performance, they are superior to self-paced training. However, all were effective in improving patient-perceived activity.

KEYWORDS

Breathing pattern
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Exercise capacity
Interval training
Lactic acidosis threshold

Cited by (0)

The work was performed at Department of Pulmonology, Szeged University, Deszk, Hungary. None of the authors received financial support from any commercial entities during the course and in regard with the study.