Development of an Incremental Sit-to-Stand Exercise for Aerobic Fitness Evaluation

Abstract

Incremental sit-to-stand exercise (ISTS) is an incremental exercise test using external signals to control the sit-to-stand rate in a given time frame. This study aimed to investigate the concurrent validity and reproducibility of the ISTS in aerobic fitness evaluation among healthy elderly women. Sixteen elderly women performed the ISTS and cycle ergometer test at 3-day to 2-week intervals, and six of the participants performed the ISTS twice. Peak oxygen uptake (VO), peak heart rate and completion time on the ISTS and cycle ergometer test were determined. Measured peak VO on the cycle ergometer test was significantly related to the peak VO (r=0.80, P<0.05) and the completion time (r=0.65, P<0.05) on the ISTS. The intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.96 for peak VO values and 0.91 for the completion time values during the two ISTSs. In conclusion, the ISTS is a valid, reproducible and safe test for aerobic fitness evaluation in healthy elderly women.

An Incremental Sit-to-Stand Exercise for Evaluating Physical Capacity in Older Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

“…The linear regression equation obtained in this study to predict peak VO 2 based on the ISTS performance differs from that among healthy older people in our previous study: peak VO 2 of the ISTS test in T2DM older patients (mL/ min/kg) = 0.0216 × the ISTS completion time (S) + 4.7318 (Fig. 2), compared with peak VO 2 of the ISTS test in healthy older people (mL/min/kg) = 0.02 × the ISTS completion time (S) + 9.6 (Nakamura et al 2017). The difference predicts a lower peak VO 2 based on the same ISTS performance among older patients with T2DM than that among healthy older people.…”

“…The ISTS is a simpler and more cost-effective test because it can be performed in a small space using a chair; moreover, the physical load intensity can be easily adjusted by changing the standing up and sitting down speed (Nakamura et al 2016). In a previous study, the ISTS was found to be a valid, reproducible test to evaluate the physical capacity of healthy older women, and it could be performed safely (Nakamura et al 2017). However, to the best of our knowledge, the ISTS has not been validated for older patients with T2DM.…”

“…The seating height of the chair was set at 120% of the distance from the floor to knee height, in the standing position (Nakamura et al 2017). The standing-up frequency during the ISTS exercise was increased 2 times/min every 45 seconds from 6 times/min to 36 times/min over a 12-min exercise period (Table 1) (Nakamura et al 2017). Audio and visual signals using down and up arrows on the computer screen were used to control the participants' standing-up speed.…”

“…The ISTS and CE tests were continued until participants reached the 85% of the predicted maximum heart rate (HR) (Gellish et al 2007), or missed the timing given by external signals three times consecutively during the ISTS test (Nakamura et al 2017), or did not maintain a pedal rotation of 60 rotations/min during the CE test. Furthermore, exercise tests were stopped when participants met the general indications for stopping criteria of an exercise testing in the ACSM Guidelines (American College of Sports Medicine 2013).…”

“…These findings appear to be owing to the impaired exercising muscle oxygen delivery linked to both cardiac and peripheral vascular dysfunction, such as T2DM-induced impairment of vascular control in contracting skeletal muscle (MacAnaney et al 2011), reduced systemic vascular conductance response (O'Connor et al 2015), or reduced exercise arteriovenous O 2 difference (Baldi et al 2003), However, a definitive conclusion remains elusive, because evidence against impairment is available in some studies (Thaning et al 2011;Poitras et al 2015). Nonetheless, there was a difference in oxygen uptakes related to physical workload between participants with or without T2DM during the ISTS exercise (Nakamura et al 2017). Consequently, when predicting the peak VO 2 using the ISTS test, the linear regression equation must be selected based on whether the participants have T2DM.…”