The Effect of Eight Weeks of Endurance and Resistance Training on Apoptotic Indexes in Young Men

Apoptosis has recently sparked interest among sport science researchers; since they have found out, both necrosis and apoptosis tend to occur during training. The present research was, therefore, designed to investigate and compare the possible adaptation of the apoptotic process following eight weeks of endurance and resistance training.

Twenty-one dormitory boy students were randomly assigned to three groups of endurance, resistance, or control. The training was performed for eight weeks, three sessions per week. Blood samples were taken before and after the training, and BC12 and BAX indexes were measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. The data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA, with the significance level of P < 0.050. Findings: There was a significant difference in BC12 changes between the three groups (P = 0.002), as well as between the endurance with control (P = 0.002) and resistance with endurance (P = 0.014) groups. But there was no significant difference between the resistance and control groups (P = 0.770). No significant differences were observed in BAX (P = 0.216) and the BCL2/BAX ratio (P = 0.092) between the groups.

The present study showed that eight weeks of training, irrespective of training type, could result in positive effects on the apoptotic factors. Training type is also considered as effective in the scale and type of changes. Therefore, it seems that, with respect to the apoptotic process in the body, regular exercise with normal intensity could take on a greater importance than the type of training.