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Published on: January 22, 2018
Wearable biosensors characterize Baguazhang exercise intensity, trunk acceleration, and cardiovascular autonomic
1School of Physical Education, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China.
Background:
Baguazhang is a traditional Chinese mind-body exercise that combines circular locomotion, repeated changes of direction, lower-limb postural control, trunk rotation, coordinated upper-limb movements, and breathing regulation. These features make it a multicomponent movement practice, but its cardiovascular intensity and trunk-acceleration profile have not been well quantified in postmenopausal women.
Methods:
Forty-six sedentary postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to a Baguazhang intervention group or a habitual-lifestyle control group in a parallel-group randomized controlled trial. The intervention group completed 12 weeks of supervised Baguazhang training (three 60-min sessions/week). Synchronized chest-strap electrocardiography and waist-mounted tri-axial accelerometry quantified heart-rate-derived internal load and waist-derived acceleration amplitude. The primary outcome was systolic blood pressure (SBP). Secondary outcomes were diastolic blood pressure (DBP), resting heart rate, body composition, and LnRMSSD. Phase-specific sensor data were summarized for the warm-up, mud-wading, circle-walking, and cool-down blocks. Between-group outcome effects were estimated with baseline-adjusted ANCOVA.
Results:
Across 812 attended sessions with valid recordings, mean session heart rate was 118.5 ± 8.4 beats/min (45.7 ± 6.2% HRR) and mean session TRIMP was 59.7 ± 9.3 arbitrary units. The circle-walking block showed the highest phase-specific cardiovascular demand (133.4 ± 9.2 beats/min; 61.5 ± 7.4% HRR) and the largest phase TRIMP (37.5 ± 5.6 AU); waist-derived MAD during this block was 0.22 ± 0.05 g. For the primary outcome, SBP was lower after Baguazhang than after habitual lifestyle (adjusted mean difference -7.2 mmHg, 95% CI -10.5 to -3.9; p < 0.001). Supportive secondary analyses, without multiplicity adjustment, yielded adjusted differences in DBP (-4.4 mmHg), resting heart rate (-4.5 beats/min), and LnRMSSD (+0.31), with smaller nominal differences in body mass index and body-fat percentage.
Conclusion:
Baguazhang elicited moderate average cardiovascular intensity, with the greatest phase-specific demand during the circle-walking block. After 12 weeks, SBP was lower than in habitual-lifestyle controls. Secondary outcomes should be interpreted as supportive. Waist accelerometry characterized trunk-acceleration amplitude but did not measure joint or musculoskeletal loading. The findings support Baguazhang as a feasible, measurable, moderate-intensity multicomponent exercise option but do not establish superiority over other exercise modalities.
