Effects of resistance training and walking on cardiovascular disease risk in African-American women.

Lyndsey M Hornbuckle, Pei-Yang Liu, Jasminka Z Ilich, Jeong-Su Kim, Bahram H Arjmandi, Lynn B Panton

Department of Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA 30144-5591, USA. lhornbu2@kennesaw.edu

Medicine and science in sports and exercise 2012 Mar

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The study's purpose was to evaluate the effects of walking (W) and walking plus resistance training (WRT) on cardiovascular disease risk factors in inactive middle-aged (49.0 ± 5.5 yr) African-American women (body mass index = 34.7 ± 6.4 kg·m(-2)). Body composition, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen were measured before and after a 12-wk exercise intervention. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two training groups. The W group (n = 25) was instructed to increase daily pedometer-measured walking to ≥10,000 steps per day, whereas the WRT group (n = 19) was given the same walking prescription plus supervised resistance training 2 d·wk(-1). A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA with an intention-to-treat analysis was performed to examine changes between groups. Significance was accepted at P ≤ 0.05. Both groups significantly (P < 0.001) increased walking (W = 5453 ± 2119 to 6845 ± 2279 steps per day, WRT = 4823 ± 1758 to 6859 ± 2012 steps per day). WRT significantly (P < 0.001) increased both upper (100 ± 15 to 113 ± 18 kg) and lower (102 ± 20 to 116 ± 25 kg) body strength compared with W. WRT significantly decreased waist circumference (94.8 ± 12.3 to 92.9 ± 12.0 cm, P = 0.021) and total fat mass (42.6 ± 11.1 to 41.8 ± 10.8 kg, P = 0.036) compared with W. WRT also significantly decreased pre- to postintervention body fat (45.8% ± 6.2% to 45.3% ± 6.2%, P = 0.018), HbA1c (5.9% ± 1.2% to 5.6% ± 1.0%, P = 0.028), and mean glucose calculated from HbA1c (122 ± 39 to 114 ± 32 mg·dL(-1), P = 0.028), whereas W showed no changes. Blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein were not affected by either intervention. Although both interventions increased steps per day, WRT was more effective in improving several body composition measures and glucose control in 12 wk. WRT may be an important addition to a lifestyle intervention aiming to facilitate reductions in cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight and obese African-American women.

Citation

Lyndsey M Hornbuckle, Pei-Yang Liu, Jasminka Z Ilich, Jeong-Su Kim, Bahram H Arjmandi, Lynn B Panton. Effects of resistance training and walking on cardiovascular disease risk in African-American women. Medicine and science in sports and exercise. 2012 Mar;44(3):525-33