Incidence of injury during moderate- and high-intensity walking training in the elderly

To evaluate the effect of 26 weeks of moderate- and high-intensity walking training on injury rates in the elderly, 68 healthy volunteers (31 men, 37 women) were assigned to moderate intensity (MOD, n = 26) or high-intensity (HI, n = 24) training, or to a control (CONT, n = 18) group. To achieve prescribed training intensity, many subjects walked uphill on a treadmill. Seven of 50 subjects who trained (14%) suffered a training-related orthopedic injury; one subject was injured during treadmill testing. Four training injuries (lower leg and foot) occurred during weeks 1-13; three training injuries (leg and groin) occurred during weeks 14-26. Six of the injuries were to women. Because only one training injury occurred during uphill treadmill walking, injuries appeared related to fast walking and not exercise intensity. The higher incidence of injury in females is consistent with our earlier work, indicating the importance of further research to determine the underlying cause.