BACKGROUND: Health care practitioners, including sports physical therapists, commonly prescribe and recommend aerobic exercise for those patients seeking to improve their cardiovascular fitness across all ages. Current literature demonstrates that weight bearing activities such as walking or running may lead to foot and ankle edema. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to determine if a significant difference exists between foot volumes (edema) in pre versus post-exercise measurements during a loaded activity (treadmill walking) or an unloaded activity (upright exercise bike) in 31 healthy subjects 50 years of age and older. METHODS: After a rest period, a pre-exercise volumetric measurement of the right leg was obtained by the use of a foot volumeter. The first condition (walking or cycling) was randomly chosen. Each subject completed two 10-minute exercise sessions. Immediately following both exercise sessions, a post-exercise volumetric measurement was completed. RESULTS: A statistically significant difference in foot volume was found between pre (mean 742.39ml, 95% CI 685.23 to 799.55) and post (mean 753.03ml, 95% CI 697.51ml to 808.55ml) measurements for the treadmill (weight bearing) protocol. When considering each sex separately, males produced significant increases in foot volume following tread-mill walking (pre mean 871.00ml, 95% CI 793.95ml to 948.05ml; post mean 886.20ml, 95% CI 811.28ml to 961.13ml), while females displayed no significant changes. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated a 1.4% increase in foot volume after 10 minutes of treadmill walking. Based on these results, it may be advisable to prescribe non-weight bearing exercise to active older individuals with pre-existing conditions for edema.

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