Effects of combined exercise training on body composition and metabolic syndrome factors.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is emerging as a serious public health problem in Korea. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of 12 weeks of combined exercise training on body composition and MS factors in obese Korean female college students.

Methods: Subjects were randomly assigned to exercise (n = 7) and control (n = 9) groups. The exercise group trained for 80 min/day, for 3 day/week for 12 weeks. Each exercise session comprised 3 phases: warm-up for 10 min, main exercise for 60 min (consisting of aerobic exercise for 30 min and resistance exercise for 30 min), and cool down for 10 min.

Results: The exercise intensity for aerobic exercise was 60-80% of the heart rate reserve (HRR) for 30 min, while the resistance exercises were 10-15 repetitions maximum (RM) for 30 min. Two-way repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical analysis. There were no interaction effects (time × group) on the MS-related factors of blood lipid composition such as triglycerides (TGs), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), glucose, total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). However, interaction effects were observed (time × group) on percent body fat (P = 0.006), waist circumference (WC; P < 0.001), systolic blood pressure (SBP; P = 0.010), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; P = 0.007).

Conclusions: A 12-week supervised combined exercise program could effectively reduce percent body fat, WC, SBP, and DBP. However, it was not effective on MS-related factors of blood lipid composition such as TG, HDL, glucose, TC, and LDL in a sample population of obese Korean female college students.