Effectiveness of a machine-assisted healthy physical fitness promotion program for community elderly

Background: Maintaining physical fitness is important for health of the elderly. How to implement an effective and efficient model is a practical issue. A healthy physical fitness promotion program with machine-assisted exercises was designed for elderly and executed in a community in 2015 and 2016. The program was implemented for 10 to 12 weeks with two (group 1) or three (group 2) sessions per week, and functional fitness tests were conducted before, at the end, and 3 months after the training. This study is to investigate the effectiveness of machine-assisted physical fitness promotion program for the community elderly. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the participants' data, including sex, age, height, weight, waist-hip ratio, grip strength, back stretch, chair sit-and-reach, 30-second chair stand, 30-second arm curl, 2-minute step, single-leg standing, 8-ft up-and-go, and body composition. The differences in test results before, at the end, and 3 months after the training and the percentage change at different time intervals between the two groups were compared. Results: After training, body mass index in group 2 and the test completion time for 8-ft up-and-go in group 1 decline significantly; furthermore, significant increase was noted in the height and number of times of 2-minute step in both groups, and grip strength, number of times of their 30-second arm curl, and 30-second chair stand in group 2. The training effect sustained 3 months after the training in height and number of times of 2-minute step in both groups, and grip strength, number of times of their 30-second arm curl, and 30-second chair stand in group 2. Conclusion: This study discovered that 10 to 12 weeks of machine-assisted exercise training can improve the elderly community members' body composition, muscle strength, muscle endurance, agility, dynamic balance, and cardiorespiratory endurance. Moreover, with three sessions per week, its effects were even maintained for 3 months after the training.