Physical fitness improvement in overweight postmenopausal women who do not lose fat mass in response to exercise training

Effects of different resistance training programmings on the relative strength, body composition, anthropometric variables, and metabolic risk of elderly women

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of two different programming models of resistance training (RT) on metabolic risk, anthropometric variables, and relative strength in elderly women. The research was a prospective and comparative longitudinal study with a non-probabilistic random sample. Twenty-two elderly women (64 ± 3 years) was divided into two experimental groups being the Linear programming (LP, n = 12) and Daily undulatory programming (DUP, n = 10), with 3 sessions/week for 12 weeks. Submaximal strength (10RM) was evaluated in the horizontal leg press (HL), pulldown (PD), leg curl (LC), vertical bench press (BP), and leg extension (LE). Anthropometric variables, food intake (R24h) and submaximal strength (10RM) was analyzed. Participants were initially classified as overweight or obese evaluated by body mass index (BMI) and percentual of fat mass (%FM) and with moderate to high risk to develop metabolic diseases evaluated by hip-waist ratio (HWR), waist-height ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC). There is no change for metabolic risk and anthropometric variables after the intervention period. There was a significant improvement for relative strength accessed by 10RM and body weight (10RM/BW), and lean body mass (10RM/LBM) (p < 0.05), with large or medium effect size for most of variables after 12 weeks of RT. As a conclusion, both programmings increased relative strength after 12 weeks of RT with attenuated change in body composition and metabolic risk in elderly women in both programming groups and all those strategies can be used in elderly women to improve strength.

Strength Improvements of Different 10-Week Multicomponent Exercise Programs in Elderly Women

The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the effects of various muscle strength sessions performed during 10 weeks physical conditioning programs and 4 weeks of detraining on the physical conditioning, body composition and hematology of elderly women. 48 women were randomly distributed in four groups: a physical conditioning group (PCG; n = 12) with two sessions per week; a PCG with an extra-session focus on hypertrophy (PCGH; n = 12), a PCG with an extra-session in a shallow pool (PCGP; n = 12); and a control group (CG; n = 12). PCGH achieved a significant increase in Abalakov. Significant differences between the CG and the other groups were found in Countermovement Jump. There were significant improvements in the chair-stand test in the PCG and PCGH. The training programs suspected improvements in HDL, LDL, baseline glucose and glycated hemoglobin. In conclusion, a training program with an extra-session focus on hypertrophy achieved a greater improvement in strength in elderly women.

Exploring factors related to changes in body composition, insulin sensitivity and aerobic capacity in response to a 12-week exercise intervention in overweight and obese women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome

Objective

To determine factors associated with differential changes in body fat, insulin resistance and aerobic capacity following a 12-week exercise intervention in overweight and obese women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Methods

16 overweight and obese women (9 PCOS; 7 without PCOS) completed a supervised progressive 12-week exercise program. Primary outcomes included changes in indicators of insulin sensitivity (including glucose infusion rate relative to fat-free mass [GIR/FFM]), body composition, and aerobic capacity (VO₂ peak; 12 participants only). Comparisons were made between women with and without PCOS, and between participants who lost ≥5% (classified as exercise responders) and <5% (non-responders) in body fat (assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry).

Results

Training decreased body fat percentage by (mean; 95% CI) -2.3%; -5.3, 0.7% in women with PCOS and by -6.4%; -10.9, -1.9% in women without PCOS (P = 0.08). Ten women (7 PCOS; 3 without PCOS) did not reduce body fat by ≥5%. All participants improved VO₂ peak (mean change 27%; 16–39%) but four (2 PCOS; 2 without PCOS) demonstrated decreases in GIR/FFM (mean change for whole cohort: 37%; 3–71%). Android-gynoid fat ratio (0.58; 0.51, 0.66 vs 0.46; 0.40, 0.51; P<0.01) was significantly higher and GIR/FFM (6.69; 3.49, 9.90 vs 11.44; 9.15, 13.72 mg/kg/min; P = 0.01) was significantly lower in non-responders compared with responders at baseline, but non-responders had significant post-training decreases in android-gynoid ratio (-0.02; -0.04, -0.01; P = 0.03), and increases in VO₂ peak (7.24; 2.28, 12.21 mL/kg/min; P = 0.01) and GIR/FFM (1.44; 0.27, 2.61 mg/kg/min; P = 0.02). In women with PCOS, pre-training VO₂ peak was significantly negatively correlated with change in total body fat (r = -0.75; P = 0.02), and pre-training fasting glucose negatively correlated with changes in VO₂ peak (r = -0.76; P = 0.04), but positively correlated with changes in GIR (r = 0.67; P = 0.046).

Conclusion

A high proportion of overweight and obese women with PCOS had small reductions in body fat following a 12-week exercise intervention, but nevertheless significantly reduced relative central adiposity and improved aerobic capacity and insulin sensitivity.