Resistance training improves inflammatory level, lipid and glycemic profiles in obese older women: A randomized controlled trial

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of resistance training on inflammatory levels, lipid and glycemic profile in obese older women. Thirty-eight obese older women (68.2 +/- 4.2 years, and 41.0 +/- 6.2% of body fat) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: A training group (TG, n - 19) that performed 8 weeks of RT; or a control group (CG, n = 19) that did not perform any type of exercise. The RT program consisted of 8 whole-body exercises for 3 sets of 10-15 repetition maximum (RM) carried out 3 times a week. Anthropometric, body composition (DXA), muscular strength (1RM), and blood sample measurements were performed pre- and post-training. After the intervention period, the TG demonstrated significantly (P < 0.05) lower values than CG for interleukin-6 (TG = 3.3 +/- 1.2 pg/mL vs. CG = 3.8 +/- 1.4 pg/mL), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TG = 3.1 +/- 1.5 pg/mL vs. CG = 3.5 +/- 1.8 pg/mL), C-reactive protein (TG = 1.8 +/- 1.4mg/L vs. CG = 3.2 +/- 1.8mg/L), low-density lipoprotein (TG = 85.1 +/- 11.0 mg/dL vs. CG = 148.7 +/- 0.1 mg/dL), glucose (TG = 90.8 +/- 11.1 mg/dL vs. CG = 97.9 +/- 6.9mg/dL), trunk fat (TG = 12.7 +/- 3.5 kg vs. CG = 14.1 +/- 4.3 kg), and total body fat (TG = 37.5 +/- 5.7% vs. CG = 43.1 +/- 5.6%). Furthermore, TG presented significantly (P < 0.05) higher values for high-density lipoprotein (TG = 58.3 +/- 15.4 mg/dL vs. CG = 55.2 +/- 11.8 mg/dL). These results suggest that 8 weeks of RT promote improvements on inflammatory levels, and the lipid and glycemic profile in obese older women. These findings further support the important role of RT in healthy aging. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.