• Marcos G Santana, Claudio A B de Lira, Giselle S Passos, Carlos A F Santos, Alan H O Silva, Cristina H Yoshida, Sergio Tufik, and Marco T de Mello.
• Disciplina de Medicina e Biologia do Sono, Departamento de Psicobiologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil. santanamg@gmail.com
• J Sci Med Sport. 2012 May 1;15(3):259-65.

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to determine whether the six-minute walk test (6-MWT) can detect changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) induced by exercise training in healthy elderly men.DesignRandomized and prospective controlled trial.MethodsThirty-two healthy untrained men, between 65 and 75 years of age, were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control (C, n = 12), endurance training (E, n = 10), or concurrent training (ER, n = 10). Training groups underwent 24 weeks of exercise, 3 times a week. All participants were subjected to cardiopulmonary exercise testing and the 6-MWT, before and after the training period.ResultsAt follow-up, the E and ER groups had significantly higher peak oxygen uptake (VO(2)peak) (15.0 ± 9.1 and 12.6 ± 10.4%, respectively) and 6-MWT distances (5.5 ± 5.3 and 4.6 ± 2.8%, respectively) compared to the C group. In pre-intervention (n = 32), the 6-MWT distance correlated positively with (VO(2)peak) (r = 0.51, p = 0.001) and VO(2) at anaerobic threshold (r = 0.39, p = 0.010). On the other hand, there was no significant correlation between the changes (after-before) in the 6-MWT distance and VO(2) peak (E and ER groups: r = 0.38, p = 0.097).ConclusionsThe 6-MWT is not appropriate to evaluate changes in CRF in healthy elderly men who performed endurance and concurrent training for 24 weeks.Copyright © 2011 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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