The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of water exercise, including functional mobility in water, performed either once or twice a week in elderly who require nursing care. Twenty-one subjects were assigned to two groups. Ten subjects trained once a week for 6 months. Eleven subjects trained twice a week for 6 months. Water exercise consisted of warming up on land and walking,ADL exercise,resistance training, stretching and relaxation in water. Functional mobility was evaluated by FIM during pre-exercise,after 3 months and 6 months. There were significant improvements in functional mobility after 6 months compared to pre-exercise in both groups. Functional mobility in the group who trained once a week did not improve at 3 months compared to pre-exercise. Although the group who trained twice a week showed a dramatic improvement in functional mobility after 3 months compared to pre-exercise, and no change after 3 months compared to after 6 months. These results indicate that water exercise once or twice a week for 6 months, including functional mobility in elderly who require nursing care, can improve functional mobility, especially, exercise twice a week could improve it within 3 months.

This study investigated the physiological responses and effects of exercise training under hypoxic conditions at the skeletal muscle level induced by reducing muscle temperature in cold water environment. Participants were divided into two intervention groups, cooling and control conditions, according to the water temperature of 15°C and 33°C where the training were conducted in. Eight participants in each group performed submaximal cycling exercise in the water for 30 minutes at the lactate threshold (LT) intensity, three times a week for four weeks (12 sessions). LT intensity was assessed at pre- and post-intervention in a 33°C water temperature environment. A progressive load cycling test was performed on land to assess maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and Wingate test was conducted to measure anaerobic power. In the cooling group, working muscle deoxygenation increased during submaximal and maximal exercise, suggesting an improvement in the muscle oxygen extraction capacity. However, no effects on aerobic capacity such as VO2max or LT intensity were observed. The improvement in mean power and time to peak during the Wingate test in the cooling group indicated that LT intensity exercise training in a cold water environment would increase anaerobic power.