Resistance training responses across race and ethnicity: a narrative review

Although the physiological mechanisms are not fully understood, race/ethnicity differences vary across cardiometabolic disease risk factors. Resistance training (RT) is an effective therapy for improving these risk factors in addition to body composition and physical performance. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of RT over time on different racial and ethnic populations across cardiometabolic, body composition, and physical performance outcomes.

Electronic databases Scopus and PubMed were searched for studies that compared different racial/ethnic responses to RT across cardiometabolic, body composition, and physical performance parameters. Inclusion criteria for the studies were as follows: (1) published in the English language; (2) compared races or ethnicities across cardiometabolic risk factors, body composition, or physical performance variables following a RT intervention; (3) included adults 18 years or older, and (4) included an isolated RT intervention group.

Nine studies were found that met the inclusion criteria. The identified studies involved cohorts of White American (WA), South Asian, European Chilean, Mapuche Chilean, White Scottish, and African American (AA) males and females. Race/ethnicity differences following a RT intervention were found for fat-free mass preservation and changes in blood pressure, endothelial function, brachial artery stiffness, cardiac autonomic function, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers, insulin sensitivity, body mass index, waist circumference, % body fat, and muscular strength. With the exception of changes in systolic blood pressure and brachial artery stiffness, AAs consistently showed more beneficial adaptations compared to WAs to RT across studies.

Race and ethnicity play a role in how adults adapt to chronic RT. These data may aid in better understanding the social, biological, and environmental factors that likely influenced these racial/ethnic differences in response to RT, assist in creating tailored exercise prescriptions for various racial/ethnic populations, and inform policies for determining resource allocations to address health inequities.