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Published on: July 5, 2017
Effects of resistance training on cardiovascular health in non-obese active adolescents
Clare Chung-Wah Yu1, Alison Mary McManus1, Hung-Kwan So1
1Clare Chung-Wah Yu, Department of Health and Physical Education, the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Aim:
To determine the benefits of a 10-wk resistance training programme on cardiovascular health in non-obese and active adolescents.
Methods:
This is a pragmatic randomised controlled intervention. The study was carried out in a Hong Kong Government secondary school. Thirty-eight lean and active boys and girls were randomised to either the resistance training group or the control group. Students in the resistance training group received in-school 10-wk supervised resistance training twice per week, with each session lasting 70 min. Main outcome measures taken before and after training included brachial endothelial dependent flow-mediated dilation, body composition, fasting serum lipids, fasting glucose and insulin, high sensitive C-reactive protein, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure and aerobic fitness.
Results:
The only training related change was in endothelial dependent flow-mediated dilation which increased from 8.5% to 9.8%. A main effect of time and an interaction (P < 0.005) indicated that this improvement was a result of the 10-wk resistance training. Main effects for time (P < 0.05) in a number of anthropometric, metabolic and vascular variables were noted; however, there were no significant interactions indicating the change was more likely an outcome of normal growth and development as opposed to a training effect.
Conclusion:
Ten weeks of resistance training in school appears to have some vascular benefit in active, lean children.
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