Consequence of resistance training on body composition and coronary artery disease risk

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a substantial cause of death and disability in South Africa and Western society, with research showing obesity to be one of the most common CAD risk factors. Furthermore, obesity is speculated to be the fastest-growing CAD risk factor and to become the most prevalent CAD risk factor. Research on obesity is therefore essential, and we propose some preventative measures that will hopefully limit the expansion of this risk factor for CAD. Most of the literature has focused primarily on aerobic modes of exercise. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate whether resistance training would improve body composition. Twenty-eight males were matched by age, percentage of body fat and waist-to-hip ratio and randomly assigned either to a resistance-training group (n = 13) or a control group (n = 15). Each subject's body mass, percentage body fat, lean mass, fat mass, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index were assessed both pre- and post-experimentally following the eight-week experimental period. The resistance-training group trained three times weekly at 60% of their one-repetition maximum using nine resistance exercises. Each exercise was performed for three sets of 15 repetitions each, whereas the control group did not exercise over this period. The dependent t-test indicated that resistance training significantly changed body mass, percentage of body fat, lean mass and fat mass (all had a p-value of 0.00; p