| Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of 8 weeks aerobic exercise and 4 weeks detraining on body composition, blood lipid levels, maximal oxygen consumption in pre- and post-menopausal women. Twenty sedentary middle-aged women were randomly divided into two groups: Pre-menopausal Group (Pr-G: n=10) and Postmenopausal Group (Po-G: n=10). All of participants performed with aerobic exercise program(treadmill walking, duration consumption 200 kcal, 60% of VO2max, 5 times/week) for 8 weeks and kept up 4 weeks detraining after aerobic exercise program. Body composition, blood lipid levels, maximal oxygen consumption of the participants were measured at beginning of aerobic exercise program (1st), repeated after 8 weeks aerobic exercise program (2nd) and 4 weeks detraining (3rd). Main results were as follows: 1) After 8 weeks aerobic exercise program, body fat (%), TC, LDLC were decreased and HDL-C, VO2max were increased and were maintained LBM in all groups. but Po-G showed lower decease rate than Pr-G in abdominal fat (%), TC, LDL-C. 2) After 4 weeks detraining, body fat (%) and VO2max were regressed to before-exercise in all groups but before-exercise regression about abdominal fat (%), TC, LDL-C appeared in only Po-G. Therefore 8 weeks aerobic exercise was effective in positive changes of the body composition, blood lipid levels and cardiopulmonary function in Po-G but need to adjust the training volume or to combine the weight training. Also, Post-menopausal women were exposed more easy occurrence of abdominal obesity, metabolic and cardiovascular disease after 4 weeks detraining. |