Resumen de Comparision of Low and High Volume of Resistance Training on Body Fat and Blood Biomarkers in Untrained Older Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Paolo M. Cunha, Crisieli M. Tomeleri, Matheus Amarante do Nascimento, Jerry L. Mayhew, Edilaine Fungari Cavalcante, Leticia T. Cyrino, Décio S. Barbosa, Danielle Venturini, Edilson Serpeloni Cyrino

• The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of resistance training (RT) performed with 2 different volumes on body fat and blood biomarkers in untrained older women. Sixty-five physically independent older women (>=60 years) were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups: low-volume (LV) training group, high-volume (HV) training group, and a control group. Both training groups performed RT for 12 weeks, using 8 exercises of 10-15 repetitions maximum for each exercise. The low-volume group performed only a single set per exercise, whereas the HV group performed 3 sets. Anthropometric, body fat (%), trunk fat, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, very LDL-c (VLDL-c), glucose (GLU), C-reactive protein (CRP), and composite Z-score were measured. The HV group obtained greater improvements compared with the LV group (p < 0.05) for TG (LV = -10.5% vs. HV = -16.6%), VLDL-c (LV = -6.5% vs. HV = -14.8%), GLU (LV = -4.7% vs. HV = -11.1%), CRP (LV = -13.2% vs. HV = -30.8%), % body fat (LV = -2.4% vs. HV = -6.1%), and composite Z-score (LV = -0.13 +/- 0.30 vs. HV = -0.57 +/- 0.29). Trunk fat was reduced (p < 0.05) only in the HV group (-6.8%). We conclude that RT performed in higher volume seems to be the most appropriate strategy to reduce body fat (%), trunk fat, improve blood biomarkers, and reduce composite Z-score in older women.