The effect of wai tan kung on autonomic nervous modulation in the elderly

The decline in physical capacity in the elderly can be ameliorated by low-velocity, low-impact exercises. Wai tan kung (WTK), a traditional Taiwanese conditioning exercise, is suitable for older people. This study evaluated the effect of WTK on autonomic nervous modulation in the elderly. Twenty WTK practitioners and 20 normal controls were recruited in this study. The stationary state spectral heart rate variability (HRV) measures, hemodynamics, and spirometry between the WTK group and normal controls and sequential changes in HRV measures and hemodynamics after WTK were compared. We found that the standard deviation and coefficient of variation of RR intervals, total power, low frequency power (LFP), and normalized LFP (nLFP) in WTK practitioners before WTK were all significantly higher than those of normal controls. After WTK, the normalized high-frequency power increased (nHFP) significantly from 27.7 +/- 13.2 normalized units (nu) before WTK to 37.6 +/- 16.0 nu 30 min after WTK, and to 39.8 +/- 20.1 nu 60 min after WTK. In contrast, LFP/HFP decreased significantly from 1.3 +/- 1.0 before WTK to 1.0 +/- 0.9 30 min after WTK and to 0.8 +/- 0.6 60 min after WTK. We concluded that in the short term, WTK enhances vagal modulation and suppresses sympathetic modulation, whereas in the long term, WTK enhances sympathetic modulation without compromising vagal modulation of the elderly. Thus WTK is good health-promoting calisthenics that can be recommended to the elderly.