A comparison of the physiological responses to exercise on ten aerobic exercise modules

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the cardiopulmonary responses on 10 exercise modalities. Sixteen subjects (8 males and 8 females) completed exercise tests on a treadmill (TM), stepper (ST), airdyne (AD), elliptical (EL), upright bike (UB), cybex arc trainer (CY), rower (RO), recumbent stepper (RS), recumbent bike (RB), and arm ergometer(AE). Self-selected workloads that elicited RPE levels of 11, 13, and 15 on the 6-20 Borg scale were used on each modality. Heart rate (HR) and oxygen consumption (VO2) were measured, and used to calculate oxygen pulses (VO2pulse). TM and ST exercise elicited the highest HRs, and were significantly higher than AD, RO, RS, RB, and AE. TM and ST had the highest VO2, followed by AD, EL, UB, CY, RO, RS, RB, and AE. AD, EL, UB, CY, and RO were significantly higher than RS, RB, and AE. Therewere no significant differences in O2pulse between TM, ST, AD, EL, and RO while AE had the lowest value. It was concluded that the best aerobic exercises are the TM and ST.