It is commonly known that staying physically active may help avoid heart diseases, as well as high blood pressure, diabetes, and dyslipidemia (an abnormal amount of lipids in the blood causing problems such as high cholesterol).
As part of attempts to control high blood pressure, diabetes, and dyslipidaemia, it is well established that aerobic exercise may help prevent cardiovascular disease.
Most relevant studies, however, have been done on younger people who do short bursts of moderate to high-intensity exercise lasting 30 to 60 minutes. Less is known about how exercise affects older people.
Many seniors enjoy safe and convenient outdoor aerobic activities like golfing, walking, and Nordic walking, an improved walking style that uses poles to strengthen the upper body as well as the legs.
The Finnish study team wanted to see how the intensity, duration, and energy expenditure of these three aerobic activities compared in the short-term on indicators of cardiometabolic health.
They conducted a research with 25 healthy senior golfers (65 years and older) to compare the effects of three acute aerobic activities on their blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipid profile in a real – life setting: an 18-hole game of golf, 6 km of Nordic walking, and 6 km of walking.
The participants wore fitness measuring devices to track their exercise-related distance, duration, speed, energy expenditure, and steps, while the researchers drew blood samples, performed blood glucose finger-prick tests, and evaluated blood pressure.
The study found that all three types of aerobic exercise, regardless of duration and intensity differences, improved the cardiovascular health of older adults when done in brief sessions. This included a reduction in systolic blood pressure through walking and Nordic walking, which also resulted in a drop in diastolic blood pressure.
Nevertheless, despite the lower exercise intensity of golf compared to Nordic walking and walking, playing golf seemed to have a positive impact on lipid profile and glucose metabolism due to its longer duration and greater total energy expenditure.
The study’s limited sample size and the questionable accuracy of the fitness gadgets are only two examples of the challenges inherent in doing research in the real world, where variables cannot be managed as easily as in a controlled laboratory setting.
Also, the researchers only asked golfers to take part in the study because they thought that non-golfers wouldn’t be able to play a round of golf well. Nordic walking, on the other hand, was a new type of exercise for most of the participants, which could have led to bad form and made the activity less effective.
“Despite the lower exercise intensity of golf,” the authors concluded, “the longer duration and higher energy expenditure appeared to have a more positive effect on lipid profile and glucose metabolism compared with Nordic walking and walking.
“These age-appropriate aerobic exercises can be recommended to healthy older adults as a form of health-enhancing physical activity to prevent cardiovascular diseases and can also be used as a treatment strategy to improve cardiometabolic health among those who already have a cardiovascular disease.”
The findings of the study were published in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine today.
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