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Abstract

The effects of combined resistance training (RT)and aerobic exercise were compared to aerobic only (AO) exercise on measures of strength, fat mass (FM), lean mass (LM), and muscle mass (MM). Twenty-seven haemodynamically stable male cardiac patients (age range 39-66 years) performed 3 weeks (6 sessions) of aerobic exercise 2x/week before being randomly assigned to one of three groups: aerobic only (AO; n = 10) early-start resistance training (ESRT; n = 8) and late-start resistance training (LSRT; n =9). All three groups participated in 16 weeks (32 sessions) of aerobic exercise, however, the ESRT and LSRT groups performed 12 and 6 weeks (24 or 12 sessions respectively) of moderate-high intensity (70-79% of 1RM) weight training (7 exercises). There were no haemodynamic complications due to the RT over the course of the study. Body composition was measured using anthropometric girths, sum of skinfolds (SOS), body weight (BW), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), Near Infrared Photospectometry (NIR) and Dual- Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA), DXA measures were only done for 14 subjects (AO & LSRT, n=4; ESRT, n=6) and due to the small group numbers results were used as supplemental information. MM was calculated from a regression equation based on skinfold-corrected limb girths. Results: A 3 (Group) X 4 (Time) ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor, indicated no significant changes for the group effect in BW (p=0.6) and SOS (P=0.9), DXA & NIR L M (both p=0.6); DXA & NIR FM (p=0.4 & p=0.9, respectively) or M M (p=0.2), or individual girths. However, a significant difference occurred for the time factor for WHR (F[sub 3,72]= 5.4, p