Physiological analysis of mountain climbing exercise

등산운동의 생리학적 분석

Physiological analysis of the physical exercise was made on 9 subjects performing mountain climbing. The course between two points (256 and 516 meters altitude) was 1,300 meters in distance and difference of vertical height was 260 meters making the mean grade of 20%. In the field, the heart rates during uphill or downhill walk were recorded by EKG radio-telemetry. In the laboratory, oxygen consumption was obtained by the recorded heart rates, using individual heart rate vs oxygen consumption diagram obtained by treadmill test. the following results were obtained. 1. Uphill walk time was 36.5 minutes, and during this period the mean heart rate was 149.0 heats/min and peak heart rate was 169.2 beats/min. The total heart beats during the uphill walk was 5.433 beats. 2. The ratio of individual mean heart rate during the uphill walk to the maximal heart rate distributed between 66.6% and 98.3%, and the mean of the total group was 83.1%. The ratio of peak heart rate of uphill walk to the maximal heart rate was 94.5% in the group. Thus uphill walk of a 20% grade mountain course was an exhaustive exercise. 3. Oxygen consumption during uphill walk was 2.22 l/min (ranged between 1.79 and 2.70 l/min) and the ratio of this to the resting oxygen consumption was 8.31. The peak value of oxygen consumption during uphill walk was 2.73 l/min and the ratio of this to the resting oxygen consumption was 10.39. 4. Energy expenditure during uphill walk showed a mean of 11.1 kcal/min and the peak expenditure rate was 13.6 kcal/min. The total energy expenditure during 36.5 minutes of uphill walk was 396 kcal. 5. In downhill walk, the time was 31.7 minutes, mean heart rate was 118.4 (ranged between 100.1 and 142.7) beats/min, and the peak heart rate was only 129.4 beats/min. The ratio of mean heart rate to the maximal heart rate was 66.3%. Total heart beats during downhill walk was 3,710 beats. The ratio of downhill oxygen consumption to the resting consumption was 5.70. The rate of energy expenditure was 7.5 kcal/min, and the total onery expenditure during the 31.7 minutes of downhill walk was 228 kcal. 6. The effect of training was manifest in the uphill walk and not in the downhill walk. After training in mountain course walk, i) the uphill time was shortened, ii) mean heart rate increased, iii) time vs heart rate curve became smooth and showed less frequent zig-zag, i.e., the depth of trough on the curve decreased and the magnitude was less than 10 beats. In non-trained subject the depth of trough on the curve was greater than 50 beats and appeared more frequently. 7. Mountain climbing is a good health promotion exercise. For the promotion of health the reasonable amount of uphill mountain walk exercise in a 20% grade course is a walk for 40 or 50 minutes duration once a week.