Exercise modality: The interest in improving metabolic syndrome among obese females

Abstract

Background: There is compelling evidence on obesity phenomenon worldwide and the interest of structured physical activity in improvement on overall health. Moderate to high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular strength resulted from aerobic and strength training appears to be protective against diabetes, CVD, and metabolic syndrome. Aerobic and strength training also has shown to have beneficial effects on metabolic syndrome risk factors by improve in glucose metabolism, lipids profile, blood pressure, and abdominal obesity via different physiological pathway. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of different mode of training on metabolic syndromes risk factors. A total of 52 participants (22.71± 1.53 years old) were participated in this study. Participants were randomly assigned into aerobic (AT, n=13), strength (ST, n=13), concurrent (CT, n=13), and control (CO, n=13) groups. Intervention groups engaged in training 3 times weekly for 8 weeks, lasting about one hour per session at moderate intensity for aerobic (50-70% of HRR), and strength training (50-70% 1 RM). Concurrent training group spent 30 minutes of aerobic exercise followed by 30 minutes of strength exercise. Triglycerides (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL), fasting blood glucose (FBG), resting blood pressure (RBP), and waist circumference (WC) were measured in this study. A significant improvement (p < 0.05) was observed in FBG, RBP, and WC. It can be summarized that regular involvement in exercise demonstrated a reduction in most of metabolic syndrome risk factors among obese females.