Cardiovascular responses during deep water running versus shallow water running in school children

Overview: As the school going children especially the adolescents’ need workout routine; it is advisable that the routine is imbibed in the school’s class time table. In India as growing number of schools provide swimming as one of the recreational activities; school staff often fails to notice the boredom that is caused by the same activity. Deep as well as shallow water running can be one of the best alternatives to swimming. Hence the present study was conducted to find out the cardiovascular response in these individuals. Methods: This was a Prospective Cross-Sectional Comparative Study done in 72 healthy school going students (males) grouped into 2 according to the interventions (Deep water running and Shallow water running). Cardiovascular parameters such as Heart rate (HR), Saturation of oxygen (SpO2), Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) and Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) were assessed. Results: Significant improvements in cardiovascular parameters were seen in both the groups i.e. by both the interventions. Conclusion: Deep water running and Shallow water running can be used to improve cardiac function in terms of various outcome measures used in the study