Resistance Exercise in the Elderly Person with Cardiovascular Disease

Elderly cardiovascular disease patients are not aggressively referred to cardiac rehabilitation programs due to concerns regarding orthopedic fragility, hemodynamic risk, and life expectancy. However, there is a growing consensus that older cardiovascular patients enrolled in rehabilitation programs will derive the same magnitude of improvement in functional capacity as their younger counterparts. Further, resistance exercise training may be necessary, as a part of a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program, to elicit optimal benefits in elderly cardiovascular patients. In this article, we briefly review orthopedic and hemodynamic risks associated with resistance training, the efficacy of resistance training, and the recommended guidelines for resistance exercise prescription. (c)1999 by CVRR, Inc.