| The addition of strength training to a traditional, aerobic-based pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) exercise program may have a significant impact on functional fitness levels in older chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. The purpose of the current study was to compare the effect of a strength-training enhanced and a traditional PR exercise program on functional fitness in older COPD patients using a newly developed, objective functional fitness measure, the Senior Fitness Test (SFT). Twenty COPD patients (14 males, 6 females; 69 +/- 9 yrs) were recruited from a local outpatient PR program. After completion of baseline measures including muscular strength measurements (1 repetition maximum or 1 RM) and the SFT along with two other functional fitness measures, patients were randomly assigned to the traditional plus strength training program (TR+ST, n = 10) or the traditional program (TR, n = 10) to serve as a comparison group. Upon successful completion of 16 exercise training sessions conducted twice a week for eight to ten weeks, patients repeated baseline tests. Independent t tests were conducted to determine if the groups significantly differed between outcome measures. Both the TR+ST and TR groups improved on all functional fitness measures; however, the improvements were not significant. Non-significant improvements in muscular strength were found in both groups, except the TR group showed a non-significant decrease in lower extremity strength. No difference was found between groups for either the functional fitness or muscular strength measures. However, moderate effect sizes (ES) for between group comparisons were determined for two of the functional fitness measures (p = .24, ES = .55 and p = .24, ES = .57 for the Chair Stand test and the 8-Foot Up and Go test, respectively). Reasons for lack of statistically significant improvements may be related to low training volume and frequency, lack of patient motivation for training and testing, small sample size, minimal muscular strength improvements, and variableness and frailty of patients. This study was the first to examine strength training and functional fitness in a COPD population. Future studies consisting of a larger sample size and greater training volume may further clarify the role of strength training in improving functional fitness in COPD patients. |
