"This is a neglected population; they have so few opportunities for physical activity," says Pieter Boer of the Sports Sciences department on the Mafikeng Campus. A specialist in disability sport, he says some care-givers take the people in their care for evening walks or have recreational games involving standing and throwing. "That's about all. Because people with intellectual disabilities do not have opportunities to exercise regularly, they tend to have suboptimal levels of cardiovascular fitness, reduced muscle strength and increased fat mass."
This inactivity is not only unhealthy but unnecessary, as Boer found in a recent research study in which he collaborated with researchers from the University of Stellenbosch and three universities in Belgium, namely Ghent University, Artevelde University College and Artesis University College Antwerp.
The study involved 54 Belgian adolescents and adults diagnosed with disorders such as Down syndrome, foetal alcohol syndrome, fragile X syndrome, hydrocephalus and pervasive developmental disorder.
Informed consent was obtained from all the participants and their parents, and the ethics committee of the Ghent University Hospital approved the study. Before the study commenced, all participants underwent tests for physical fitness, metabolism (cholesterol, blood pressure and insulin) and anthropometric variables (such as weight, height, body mass and fat mass).
The participants were then divided into three groups. The control group did no supervised exercise at all for the duration of the study, while both of the other two groups had 40 minutes of supervised exercise twice a week. "The difference lay in the kind of exercise they engaged in," says Boer, the project leader. One of the two groups performed continuous aerobic training (CAT), consisting of warm-up exercises, walking, running, cycling, stepping and cooling down. The other group engaged in sprint interval training (SIT), in which they performed high-intensity sprint bouts interspersed with active recovery.
"At the end of the 16 weeks, both groups participating in physical activity showed various improvements compared to the control group. The biggest changes were in waist circumference, fat percentage, cholesterol and insulin levels, systolic blood pressure and aerobic capacity."
However, the results also showed that the group doing interval sprint training derived even more benefit than those doing the traditional CAT training.
The messages from the study are clear: people with intellectual disabilities benefit measurably from both continuous aerobic exercise and sprint interval training, although sprint interval training seems to be more effective. Moreover, sprint interval training is feasible and well tolerated among this population.
"Improvements in many of these variables will help these individuals with their quality of life, especially into old age. They will be able to remain healthy with a more optimal body composition for a longer period," concludes Boer.
