Objective
The purpose of this study was to examine the changes of cardiopulmonary response and serum lipid level after backward walking training in healthy male college students.

Method
Subjects were ten healthy male college students. Maximal heart rate and VO_2max were determined for each subject by administering a Bruce treadmill exercise test after backward walking training during eight weeks. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to evaluate the changes of the backward walk training.

Results
The study showed that maximal heart rates were 163.7 beat/min in pre-training and 175.8 beats/min in post- training; in contrast, resting heart rates were 72 beat/min in pre-training and 67 beat/min in post-training. The maximal oxygen consumptions were 2111 ml/min in pre-training and 2521 ml/min in post-training. There were significant differences (p＜0.05) in maximal heart rate, heart rate ratio of maximal heart rate (% HR), oxygen consumption, and oxygen consumption ratio of maximal oxygen consumption (% VO_2max) between the pre and post-training. The HDL cholesterol level was 42.8 mg/dl in pre-training and 58.0 mg/dl in post-training. There was significant increased of HDL cholesterol in post-training.

Conclusion
We concluded that 5 km/hr backward walk training for eight weeks was an effective exercise program to increase in aerobic capacity of the male college students. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2002; 26: 342-346)