Effect of circuit training on body composition, physical fitness, and metabolic syndrome risk factors in obese female college students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a 12-week circuit training program on health-related physical fitness and metabolic syndrome risk factors in obese female college students. Twenty subjects with over 30% of accumulated body fat voluntarily participated and were randomly allocated to the control group (n=10) or circuit training group (n=10). The circuit training program consisted of 10 types of resistance and aerobic exercise and was performed 3 times per week for 12 weeks. Health-related physical fitness and metabolic syndrome risk factors were analyzed to elucidate the effect of the circuit training. Significant differences between groups were determined with two-way repeated analysis of variance and paired t-test. As a result of this study, body weight, % body fat, and body mass index in the circuit training group was significantly decreased compared to the control group. All health-related physical fitness indicators such as back strength, sit-up, sit-and-reach, and 1,600 m running time showed relative effects between groups or over time. Among the metabolic syndrome risk factors, waist measurement, triglyceride, and total cholesterol were significantly decreased but blood glucose, high-density lipo-protein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol did not show any significant difference. Therefore, the present data suggested that circuit training for 12 weeks may be effective in improving physical fitness and preventing metabolic diseases.

Exercising for Insulin Sensitivity – Is There a Mechanistic Relationship With Quantitative Changes in Skeletal Muscle Mass?

“…Another seminal study that has shaped the field is the one by Eriksson et al (1997) who reported conclusions comparable to those of Miller et al Their results support a strong and negative association ( r = –0.73; p < 0.05) between increased SM mass and HbA1c in middle-aged men and women diagnosed with T2D in response to 3 months of circuit-style RT ( Eriksson et al, 1997 ). Since, a growing body of evidence support circuit-style RT as an effective training modality to enhance metabolic health components, such as whole-body glucose homeostasis ( Kolahdouzi et al, 2019 ) body composition and physical fitness ( Kim et al, 2018 ) and pro-inflammatory cytokine profile ( Kolahdouzi et al, 2019 ). One clear advantage of such a training protocol is its similarity to aerobic exercise from the perspective of the broad continuum of the energy systems, according to its ability to induce an elevated cardiovascular response ( Gotshalk et al, 2004 ).…”

The Importance of Physical Fitness for Pencak Silat Athletes: Home-Based Weight Training Between Tabata and Circuit Can it Work?

“…We confirm that Circuit Weight training can significantly increase flexibility. A study conducted in Korea on flexibility shows that the Circuit is the main capital to increase flexibility in obese Female, it is because in the Circuit implements high training intensity and frequency of aerobic exercise drills (Kim et al, 2018). Kang and Lee (2012) also reported the same results that the effects of circuit weight training for 12 weeks effectively increased flexibility.…”

“…All values were expressed as mean±standard deviation. P<0.05 was considered significant (Kim et al, 2018).…”

“…We measure physical fitness related to arm muscle strength was measured with a hand grip strength (Takei T.K.K. 5401 Grip-D Tokyo, Japan) (Kim et al, 2018). This test can measure the static strength of the hand muscles.…”

“…Circuit training can be done with gymnastics, handheld weights, exercise machines, where the posts used are usually from 5 to 8 posts and exercises at each post that is carried out less than one minute (e.g. 15-40 seconds), 20 seconds to rest in each post (Kim et al, 2018). Then the duration of the Circuit exercise is around 20 to 35 minutes (Plevková & Peráčková, 2019) and some of the training is around 50 to 60 minutes each time (Kim & Lee, 2019).…”