Objective: Although the importance of exercise instruction in preventing metabolic syndrome and lifestyle-related diseases is evident, there exists little knowledge regarding specific types of exercise which is easily accepted by exercise beginners and provide strong motivation to continuing such exercise, and its expected effect. In the present open-label, comparative study, two types of exercise program were compared in exercise beginners.
Methods: Twenty-three healthy premenopausal volunteer women aged between 35 (inclusive) and 45 (exclusive) years without experience of exercise were randomly allocated to Group M, which was prescribed a composite exercise program with muscle resistance training (n=12), or Group W, which was prescribed a simple exercise program with walking as a main component (n=11). The participants were instructed to perform their assigned exercise program for 40 minutes at a time, three times a week for 8 consecutive weeks at a fitness studio. After three withdrawals were excluded, 10 women (40.3 ± 1.9 years) in Group M and 10 (39.7 ± 2.7) in Group W were included in analyses of the following data obtained at baseline and after 8 weeks: examination for subjective symptoms (using the Anti-Aging QOL Common Questionnaire (AAQol), the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (SATI) for evaluation of anxiety, Young’s Symptom Distress Scale (SDS) for evaluation of depressed state, and the Kupperman Menopausal Index (KMI) for evaluation of symptoms of climacteric disturbance), physical examination, vascular function tests (cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI), ankle brachial pressure index (ABI), and fingertip acceleration plethysmogram), blood tests (including but not limited to IGF-I and DHEA-s), oxidative stress tests (with a biological antioxidant potential (BAP) test and measurement of diacron-reactive oxygen metabolites (-ROMs), and skin image analysis.
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