The Effects of Aqua Bag Exercise as Leisure Activity on Lower Limb Strength and Balance Ability in Elderly Women

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a 12-week Aqua Bag exercise program, implemented as a leisure activity, on lower limb strength and balance ability in elderly women. The participants consisted of 16 elderly women residing in S City without any health issues, who were randomly assigned to either the experimental group(n=8) or the control group(n=8) through simple random sampling. The Aqua Bag exercise program was conducted three times per week for 12 weeks. To verify the program's effectiveness, the means and standard deviations of each variable were calculated, and a two-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed. The significance level was set at α=.05. The results showed that, first, the lower limb strength of the experimental group significantly increased after the intervention, while that of the control group decreased. Second, balance ability improved in the experimental group after the exercise program, whereas it decreased in the control group. Therefore, it was confirmed that the Aqua Bag exercise program is an effective method for enhancing lower limb strength and improving balance ability in elderly women.