Abstract

This study examined the effects of a 20-week concurrent training (CT, ie, resistance plus endurance training) intervention on cardiovascular risk factors, such as body composition, blood pressure, and lipid profile among adult women with hyperglycemia. A secondary aim was to report prevalence of non-responders for the different study outcomes. Physically inactive overweight/obese and hyperglycemic adult women (42 +/- 6 years; BMI = 30.9 +/- 4.8 kg/m(2)) were randomly assigned to a 20-week CT intervention group or a control (non-exercise) group (CG) (n = 14/group). Cardiovascular risk factors for body composition (body mass, waist circumference [WC], fat mass, and lean mass), blood pressure, and lipid profile (total, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting glucose) were assessed before and after the 20-week intervention. Our results show that a CT intervention results in a reduction of comorbidities in terms of abdominal obesity and cardiovascular risk in adult women with hyperglycemia by decreasing WC and improving lipid profile in "mean" terms. At the individual level, after CT, some subjects changed their status from a "high" to a "low" cardiovascular risk in terms of WC, while others changed from hypertension to either high blood pressure or normotension, or from high blood pressure to normotension, and others changed from hypercholesterolemia/dyslipidemia to normocholesterolemia. Overall, there were 30%, 50%, and 20% of individuals in the CT exercise group who showed no change/adverse response for body composition, blood pressure, and lipid profile, respectively, after the 20-week CT intervention.