Original articles  EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOMECHANICS 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2004 June;44(2):141-6

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Physiological changes following a 12 week gym based stair-climbing, elliptical trainer and treadmill running program in females

Egaña M., Donne B.

Department of Physology Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Aim. Despite the growing popularity in recent years of the elliptical trainer aerobic exercise modality the physiological changes induced following a training program using elliptical trainers remains unknown. The present study investigated the metabolic and cardiorespiratory improvements following a 12-week aerobic training program using elliptical trainer, treadmill or stair-climbing modalities.
Methods. Twenty-two moderately active females (28.6±5.3 y, 1.65±0.05 m) were randomly assigned to treadmill running (n=7), elliptical trainer (n=8) or stair-climber (n=7) groups and trained 3 days.week-1 initially at 70-80% of maximum heart rate (HRmax) for 30 min, progressing to 80-90% HRmax for 40 min. Subjects performed incremental exercise to volitional exhaustion using an electronically loaded cycle ergometer before and upon completion of the program. In addition, subjects performed sub-maximal fixed load tests at 0, 4, 8 and 12 weeks, using ergometers specific to their exercise group.
Results. No significant inter-group differences were recorded for pre-training V.O2max or V.Emax. Significant (p<0.05) post-training increases in cycling V.O2max and V.Emax were observed for treadmill (mean±SEM, 40.7±2.2 vs 43.4±2.6 ml.kg-1.min-1 and 82.9±5.1 vs 90.2±6.4 l.min-1), elliptical trainer (36.9±2.5 vs 39.6±2.4 ml.kg-1.min-1 and 86.8±2.3 vs 92.5±4.1 l.min-1) and stair-climber (37.4±2.9 vs 39.2±3.1 ml.kg-1.min-1 and 95.9±5.8 vs 97.4±5.8 l.min-1) modalities, however, the increases were not significantly different between groups. For all groups, sub-maximal HR significantly decreased from week 0 to 4, and from week 4 to 8.
Conclusion. In moderately active females similar physiological improvements were observed using stair-climber, elliptical trainer and treadmill running when training volume and intensity were equivalent.