Lipid and lipoprotein profiles, cardiovascular fitness, body composition, and diet during and after resistance, aerobic and combination training in young women

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of various modes of t raining on the time-course of changes in lipoprotein-lipid profiles in the blood, cardiovascular fitness, and body composition after 16 weeks of train ing and 6 weeks of detraining in young women. A group of 48 sedentary but h ealthy women [mean age 20.4 (SD 1) years] were matched and randomly placed into a control group (CG, n = 12), an aerobic training group (ATG, n = 12), a resistance training group (RTG, n = 12), or a cross- training group that combined both aerobic and resistance training (XTG, n = 12). The ATG, RTG and XTG trained for 16 weeks and were monitored for changes in blood concen trations of lipoprotein-lipids, cardiovascular fitness, body composition, a nd dietary composition throughout a 16 week period of training and 6 weeks of detraining. The ATG significantly reduced blood concentrations of trigly cerides (TRI) (P < 0.05) and significantly increased blood concentrations o f high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) after 16 weeks of training. The correlation between percentage fat and HDL-C was 0.63 (P < 0.05), which explained 40% of the variation in HDL-C, while the correlation between max imal oxygen uptake ((V) over dotO(2max)) and HDL-C was 0.48 (P < 0.05), whi ch explained 23% of the variation in HDL-C. The ATG increased (V) over dotO (2max) by 25% (P < 0.001) and decreased percentage body fat by 13% (P < 0.0 5) after 16 weeks. Each of the alterations in the ATG had disappeared after the 6 week detraining period. The concentration of total cholesterol (TC), TRI, HDL-C and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol in the blood did not ch ange during the study in RTG, XTG and CC. The RTG increased upper and lower body strength by 29% (P < 0.001) and 38%, respectively. The 6 week detrain ing strength values obtained in RTG were significantly greater than those o btained at baseline. The XTG increased upper and lower body strength by 19% (P < 0.01) and 25% (P < 0.001), respectively. The 6 week detraining streng th values obtained in XTG were significantly greater than those obtained at baseline. The RTG, XTG and CG did not demonstrate any significant changes in either (V) over dotO(2max), or body composition during the training and detraining periods. The results of this study suggest that aerobic-type exe rcise improves lipoprotein-lipid profiles, cardiorespiratory fitness and bo dy composition in healthy, young women, while resistance training significa ntly improved upper and lower body strength only.