2.3. Interventions

The control group did not participate in any intervention or contact the evaluators during the training period. The contact was made only for pre and post evaluations.

The multicomponent training consisted of two classes per week of 90 min each, divided into a 15-min warm-up, consisting of balance exercises, motor coordination and games, 35 min of muscular strength, 35 min of aerobic activities, and five final minutes of relaxation, in order to develop the coordinating and conditioning motor capacities [14].

The intensities of the training sessions were prescribed and monitored using the Borg scale of subjective perception of effort adapted by Foster [15] (SPE), on which the values progress from 0 to 10, with 0 corresponding to no effort (rest) and 10 to the maximum effort (exhaustive). Around 12 exercises were chosen during each training session, arranged in a circuit format on a sports court. The exercises chosen were always multi-joint and encompassed the large body muscles. Materials such as mats, dumbbells, bars, step washers, medicine balls, tension elastics, and anklets increased the training load. The intensities of the training sessions were progressively prescribed, as follows: weeks 1 to 2:3 to 4; weeks 3 to 5:4 to 6; weeks 6 to 8:6 to 7; weeks 9 to 11:7 to 8; weeks 11 to 14:8 to 10, representing a moderate to high intensity of physical exercise.16 To measure the internal training loads (ITL), the training impulse (TRIMP) was used—the product of the multiplication of the SPE by the duration of the session in minutes (SPE × duration of the session), represented in arbitrary units (au). In addition to the ITL quantification, the monotony index (MI) was calculated according to Foster [15], which is used to determine the internal load variability during a given training period and is the result of the ratio between the mean daily load and the standard deviation (SD) of these values. Therefore, the increase in monotony represents low variation in the ITL pattern.

Flexibility was trained through the active stretching method with accessories, according to the protocol proposed by Nelson and Kokkonen (2007) [16], which follow the recommendations of the American College of Sports Medicine (2019) [17], regarding volume and intensity [18]. The participants were separated into groups to perform stretching exercises aimed at postural alterations typical of aging (hip flexor muscles, spine extensors, elevators, and scapular protectors), focusing on individual needs, identified after the postural analysis test. The exercise protocol was directed to each postural compensation strategy and stratified into four levels of exercise complexity, with a new complexity added every four weeks. The intensity and volume protocol was divided into four levels, with progression of stretching time and painful perception measured by the pain scale [19]. Training was performed twice a week (Table S1).