The practicalities of conducting exercise studies with elderly and ver
y elderly people have not been well described. In order to help others
plan and perform such studies we describe our experience of recruitin
g volunteers, applying selection criteria, measuring strength, power,
cardiorespiratory responses, and potentially related functional abilit
ies. Exclusion criteria are offered, for safety and to characterize su
bjects as free of disease which might alter their exercise performance
. International agreement on these, or similar, criteria would be valu
able. The budget must be adequate for prolonged recruitment before a s
tudy and for the liberal use of taxis during it. With healthy subjects
in their seventies, the coefficients of variation (CV) for repeated m
easurements of strength and power were: handgrip 3%, isometric knee ex
tension 6%, isometric elbow flexion 6%, and lower limb extensor power
90%. CV for isometric knee extension by healthy subjects in their eigh
ties was 4%. Treadmill ergometry is more time-consuming than with youn
ger subjects. During progressive treadmill tests, the heart rate inter
polated to oxygen consumptions of 10 and 15 ml.kg-1. min had CV = 4% a
nd 7%, respectively.