Effects of Aquatic Aerobic Training on Body Composition and Cardiorespiratory and Metabolic Variables in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Although approaches to reduce cardiovascular disease, coronary artery disease (CAD) remains the leading cause of mortality in the industrialized world. In order to reduce the deleterious effects of the atherosclerotic process, proposals for non-pharmacological treatment have been used, such as cardiac rehabilitation programs, with emphasis on exercise -based therapy. Traditionally aerobic exercises like biking, walking and jogging are conducted, however, alternative ways such as aquatic exercise training have been proposed, however, the cardiorespiratory adaptations in this population are not well documented in the literature. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of aquatic aerobic training (AAT) on body composition, autonomic modulation of heart rate (HR) and cardiorespiratory and metabolic variables in patients with CAD. This was a longitudinal clinical trial with a sample allocated for convenience, in which twenty-one patients were male, with a diagnosis of CAD, which were divided into control group (CG were studied, n=8), who was only assessed, and training group (TG, n=13). All patients underwent assessment of body composition, heart rate variability (HRV) at rest in the supine posture, and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), performed before and after the AAT program. The training protocol consisted of three sessions per week on alternate days for 16 weeks, totaling 48 sessions, which had lasted approximately one hour. The exercise intensity was prescribed between 80 and 110% of the first ventilatory threshold (VT1) obtained in CPET. Given that these parameters represent risk markers for cardiovascular events in the population studied, the results suggest that the AAT proposed in this study may be an important therapeutic strategy to be incorporated into cardiac rehabilitation programs.