Multicomponent training: the effect of a strenght training program on physical and functional fitness in older women

Abstract

Ageing is a natural, irreversible and progressive phenomenon. It is strongly associated with decreased physical abilities and motor skills, thus facilitating the appearance of degenerative diseases, being aggravated by factors such as a sedentary lifestyle. Multicomponent training applied in to the Third Age, namely, physically active elderly women, could constitute a valid mechanism in the development of anthropometric parameters and motor abilities. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of a multicomponent training program on the anthropometric parameters and physical and functional fitness in elderly women. The study was conducted with fifteen volunteer elderly women, ages sixty-five and ninety-four, who performed daily living activities independently and autonomously. We used the Functional Physical Fitness Protocol Test Battery developed by Rikli & Jones (1999) (Pre and post-test). For the statistical data analysis, we used SPSS software version 25.0, for Windows. For comparison, between the study groups, at the two moments of evaluation, we used the t-test for paired samples. For the association between the variables under study, at the second moment of evaluation, we used Spearman's correlation coefficient (r). The level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. We concluded that multicomponent training provided benefits in functional physical fitness and body composition of the elderly women under study. It seems fundamental to include physical exercise for the development of motor skills, in its entirety, through multicomponent training exercises, to promote performance capacity in daily life activities, as well as in tasks with a higher level of demand.