Program to study optimal protocol for cardiovascular and muscular efficiency

Abstract

Two possible ways to minimize the effects of deconditioning in space are; To achieve a very high level of conditioning immediately prior to flight, and to provide a regimen in the capsule which will maintain a moderate degree of fitness. It was determined that running and riding a bicycle ergometer at comparable heart rates produced similar gains in physical fitness variables. It was found that subjects who exercised at a 180 heart rate made greater gains in physical fitness than did those exercising at a 140 or 160 heart rate. When the length of the workout was varied, subjects exercising sixty minutes per day made greater gains than those exercising twenty or forty minutes per day. Subjects who discontinued training slowly deconditioned, but a moderate level of fitness could be maintained by exercising at a pulse rate of 160 beats per minute for twenty minute periods three times a week. Subjects who overtrained twice daily to near exhaustion increased in fitness.