| The study assessed the quality of an exercise program designed to provide a standardized, supervised, and equivalent training challenge for each participant on a computerized automated cycle ergometer system. Study participants consisted of 29 local families (58 women and 57 men) who participated in the HERITAGE Family Study at the University of Minnesota Clinical Center. Subjects exercised 3 times per week beginning at the HR associated with 55%VO 2max and gradually progressed to 75%VO2max (during the final 8 weeks of training). Duration of the exercise sessions progressively increased from 30 to 50 minutes. Protocol called for completion of the 60 training sessions within 21 weeks. A computer record was kept of each training session and was reviewed weekly. Inaccurate computer recordings of HR leading to inappropriate adjustments to the subjects training workload was a frequent system failure. Data corrections were required for 11.6% of the training sessions (range 0.0 to 65.0% per subject) and 2.3% of recorded training minutes (range 0.0 to 19.2% per subject). Significant but unimportant differences (p < 0.05) occurred between recorded and actual HR at some training intensities, the mean differences were less than 0.75 bpm. Failures of the HR monitoring system did not significantly impact training responses based on the improvement of VO2max, maximum power output achieved, or HR and oxygen pulse at 50 watts power output during cycle ergometer exercise (p < 0.05). At the 75% VO2max intensity training level, average training HR was about 5 bpm less than target training HR (significant at p < 0.05). 75 of the 115 participants (65%) met the 21 week compliance standards. During the most intense training periods, 95 of 115 participants (83%) met compliance standards. Subjects who were not fully compliant did not differ in training response to the measured cardiorespiratory factors (p < 0.05). In conclusion, both the automated computerized cycle ergometer training system and participant compliance met requirements of a standard and equivalent training program as determined by the measured cardiorespiratory responses to training. |
