Abstract
This study examined the effect of Pilates training under hypoxia, a novel treatment method, for obesity. Thirty-two Korean women with obesity (age: 34–60 (47.5 ± 7.5) years) were randomly assigned to control (CON; n = 10), normoxic Pilates training (NPTG; n = 10), and hypoxic Pilates training groups (HPTG; n = 12). The NPTG and HPTG performed 50 min of Pilates training using a tubing band for 12 weeks (3 days/week) in their respective environmental conditions (NPTG: normoxic condition, inspired oxygen fraction (FiO2) = 20.9%; HPTG: moderate hypoxic condition, FiO2 = 14.5%). The CON maintained their daily lifestyle without intervention. All subjects underwent body composition, blood pressure, arterial stiffness, vascular endothelial function, cardiometabolic biomarker, hemorheological function, and aerobic performance measurements before and after the intervention. The HPTG showed a significant improvement in diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, flow-mediated dilation, and erythrocyte deformability and aggregation (all p < 0.05) compared with the CON and NPTG. However, compared with the CON and NPTG, the HPTG did not show improvement in other parameters. Hypoxic Pilates intervention is a novel and successful method for promoting endothelial and hemorheological functions in women with obesity.
Highlights
Obesity, a phenomenon caused by excessive body fat accumulation, is recognized as a global health problem and is reported to increase the prevalence and risk of death because it is a major cause of various metabolic and cardiovascular diseases [1]
No significant interaction was noted for any of the body composition parameters, significant main effects within time were found for weight (p = 0.032, η2 = 0.154) and body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.022, η2 = 0.173) (Table 2)
Post-hoc analysis revealed no significant difference in weight and BMI
Summary
A phenomenon caused by excessive body fat accumulation, is recognized as a global health problem and is reported to increase the prevalence and risk of death because it is a major cause of various metabolic and cardiovascular diseases [1]. According to the 2016 World Health Organization report, 39% of the world’s adult population (>1.9 billion) was overweight and 13% of the population (650 million) was obese [2]. The prevalence rate of obesity in South Korea is increasing rapidly with age (20s: 24.9%, 30s: 33.4%, 40s: 35.3%, 50s: 38%, 60s: 38%, and over 70s: 34.7%) [3]. Physical activity is an effective method for treating obesity because it reduces body fat by reducing subcutaneous and visceral fat [4]. Public Health 2020, 17, 7186; doi:10.3390/ijerph17197186 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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