Low volume aerobic training heightens muscle deoxygenation in early post-angina pectoris patients

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of low volume aerobic exercise training on muscle O2 dynamics during exercise in early post-angina pectoris (AP) patients, as a pilot study. Seven AP patients (age: 72 ± 6 years) participated in aerobic exercise training for 12 weeks. Training consisted of continuous cycling exercise for 30 min at the individual’s estimated lactate threshold, and the subjects trained for 15 ± 5 exercise sessions over 12 weeks. Before and after training, the subjects performed ramp cycling exercise until exhaustion. Muscle O2 saturation (SmO2) and relative changes from rest in deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration (ΔDeoxy-Hb) and total hemoglobin concentration (ΔTotal-Hb) were monitored at the vastus lateralis by near infrared spatial resolved spectroscopy during exercise. The SmO 2 was significantly lower and ΔDeoxy-Hb was significantly higher after training than before training, while there were no significant changes in ΔTotal-Hb. These results indicated that muscle deoxygenation and muscle O2 extraction were potentially heightened by aerobic exercise training in AP patients, even though the exercise training volume was low.