Acute Inflammatory and Affective Responses to Varying Resistance Training Loads in Women who are Postmenopausal PDF Download

Author: Ciaran M. Fairman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Kinesiology
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Physical activity is a powerful behavioral intervention that can improve key metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors in aging women. Although a considerable amount of research has focused on the health benefits of aerobic exercise participation among aging women, much less is known about physiological and affective responses to an acute bouts of resistance exercise in women who are postmenopausal. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of RE intensity on physiological, affective, and motivational outcomes in postmenopausal women at heightened risk for chronic disease. A total of 13 overweight women who were postmenopausal (Age: 9.23±11.31 years; Height: 63.27±2.74in: Weight: 77.23±10.60kg) participated in the study. Each participant completed 3 experimental conditions. Prior to experimental conditions, participants completed a baseline assessment of strength and body composition, 6 familiarization sessions to acclimate participants to the resistance exercises and loads for each condition. Three sets of each exercise were performed in each experimental, whereas the load and number of repetitions lifted differed in each experimental condition. The low-load condition involved sets of 12-15 reps at 55%-64% 1 repetition maximum (RM), with 60 seconds of rest between sets. The moderate load involved sets of 8-12 reps at 65%-75% 1RM, with 90 seconds of rest between sets. The heavy load involved sets of 3-6 reps at 80-90% 1RM, with 120 seconds of rest between sets. Assessment of inflammatory markers were obtained prior to, immediately after, 15 minutes and 30 minutes after each experimental condition. The feeling scale (FS) was administered before, during (after the third set of each exercise) and immediately following each condition. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) was assessed following each set. Motivation was assessed before and immediately following each session. Self-Efficacy and intention were assessed immediately following each session. Results revealed no significant time, condition or time x condition differences in cortisol, inflammatory markers or motivational correlates. There was a significant time effect for lactate, with levels peaking immediately after each experimental condition before returning to baseline before 30 minutes after exercise. There was no difference in intention or self-efficacy between experimental conditions. It is concluded that acute bouts of RE at 55-64% 1RM, 65-75% 1RM and 80-90% 1RM result in comparable metabolic stress, inflammatory and affective responses. This lends further support to the safety and tolerability of high load resistance exercise in postmenopausal women. Given the comparable, positive affective response after the low, medium and high conditions in our study, fitness professionals could capitalize on these findings by encouraging postmenopausal women to select higher loads that may confer specific strength benefits, yet still yield positive affective responses.