A Comparison of the Effect of Aerobic and Low Intensity Resistance Training on Adiposity Anthropometric Indices in Overweight Women

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of 8 weeks of aerobic and low intensity resistance training on adiposity anthropometric indices including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), waist to height ratio (WHtR), body fat percent (%BF), arm circumference (AC), hip circumference (HC) and thigh circumference (TC) in middle-aged overweight women. 30 volunteered women with regular menstrual cycle and 25≤BMI≥30 were randomly divided into aerobic and low intensity resistance training groups. The aerobic training consisted of 60% of HR intensity and resistance training included 40-45% 1RM intensity. The covariance analysis test was used to compare the differences between the two groups and paired t test was applied to compare the differences between pretest and posttest of each group. The results showed a significant difference between aerobic and resistance groups in AC (P=0.04) and TC (P=0.02) at the end of the experiment (P≤0.05). However, no significant differences were observed in other variables between the two groups. According to the results, low intensity resistance training was more effective than aerobic training to reduce indices of adiposity.