Physiological and perceived responses obtained during gait in self-selected rhythm by women with different body mass indices [Respostas fisiológicas e perceptuais obtidas durante a caminhada em ritmo autosselecionado por mulheres com diferentes índices de massa corporal]

Physiological and perceived responses verified during gait have been widely studied; however, few investigations have tried to compare these responses in groups of different body mass indices during gait in self-selected rhythm. The aim of the present study was to compare the physiological and perceived responses among normative (N), overweighed (OW) and obese ( OB) women during gait in self-selected rhythm. Sixty-six sedentary women, aged between 20 and 45 years and divided in three groups according to their body mass indices participated in the study: (i) N (18.5-24.9kg.m(-2), n = 22); (ii) OW (25.0 - 29.9kg.m(-2), n = 22) and (iii) OB (>= 30.0kg.m(-2), n = 22). Each participant performed a familiarization session and two experimental sessions (maximal incremental test and 20m-walking test in self-selected rhythm) to determine the physiological ( heart rate - HR and oxygen consumption - O(2)) and perceived responses ( perceived exertion - PE) of each session. One-way ANOVA was applied to compare the physiological and perceived responses obtained during gait in self-selected rhythm among the three experimental protocols, applying the Tukey's post hoc test with p < 0.05. Although the obese subjects have registered lower walking velocity (1.30 +/- 0.13m.s(-1)) compared with the normative and overweighed ones (1.69 +/- 0.11 and 1.58 +/- 0.22m.s(-1), respectively) ( p < 0.05), they presented similar physiological response ((58.7 +/- 8.6; 63.1 +/- 12.6; 64.8 +/- 11.1 %O(2) and 75.1 +/- 7.8; 78.8 +/- 8.5; 78.7 +/- 7.2 % HR(max), for the normative, overweighed and obese groups, respectively). Moreover, the perceived responses did not differ between experimental groups (11.6 +/- 1.6; 11.7 +/- 1.6; 12.2 +/- 1.8, respectively). Therefore, it can be concluded that regardless of the BMI, adult women present similar physiological and perceived responses during gait in self-selected rhythm even when walking in different velocities.