AEROBIC UPPER-BODY EXERCISE - AN UNUSED POTENTIAL IN EXERCISE THERAPY

Until recently, there was little or no emphasis on aerobic upper body exercise training, despite research strongly supports the inclusion of this type of exercise in cardiac rehabilitation programs and adult fitness. The limited degree of transfer of training benefits from trained limbs to another set of untrained limbs appears to discount the practice of recommending aerobic leg exercise alone. In addition, leg training programs fail to accomodate individuals with specific health problems. There is an increased physiological stress during arm training, if compared to leg training. Exercise intensity derived from a bicycle- or treadmill test would therefore cause an inappropriately target heart rate for upper body exercise. Thus, target heart rate has to be reduced by 10 to 20% to be adequate for aerobic arm training. Finally, an example of a progressive arm exercise training program is shown.