Circulatory Responses to Weight Lifting, Walking, and Stair Climbing in Older Males

Abstract

We concluded that older adults who engage in weight lifting with heavy submaximal loads are exposed to no more peak circulatory stress than that created during a few minutes of inclined walking. Moreover, climbing only three to four flights of stairs at a moderate pace (approximately 50-70 s) elicits peak circulatory demands similar to, but at a much more rapid rate of adjustment than, 10 minutes of horizontal walking at 2.5 mph intermittently carrying a 30-pound weight or 4 minutes of walking up a moderately steep slope.