Peripheral artery disease and resistance training: improving performance and health.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a pathology of lower limbs affecting about 20% of people older than 70 years. Intermittent claudication (IC) is the most frequent symptom of PAD. IC is pain experienced during walking, typically in the calf. This limits the walking ability of patients and reduces social role, physical activity and quality of life. The main therapy for IC is supervised exercise. Whereas the primary role of supervised exercise in treatment of IC is well established there are some doubt about the best typology of exercise. Usually training includes only walking and aerobics exercises, but some elements suggested that for this patients adding strength exercises may be useful.