Comparison of the effect of resistance training on the body compositions of different women groups: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

INTRODUCTION: This study attempts to investigate whether simple resistance training (RT) exerts different effects on the body composition of different women groups. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Relevant articles from PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched and simultaneously screened by two authors. Twenty-three randomized controlled trials are included. The qualities were evaluated by the Cochrane bias risk evaluation tool. Data about sample size, Means and SD of FM, BF %, FFM and MM from original articles were extracted and processed by Reviewer Manager 5.3 software. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: For women with postmenopausal, RT can significantly reduce their BF'% and FM, and increase their FFM; while for women with premenopausal, it can only obviously reduce their BF%. RT can significantly reduce the FM and BF% of women with overweight/ obese and increase their FFM, however, it has no significant effect on women with non-overweight/obese. RT can substantially and positively affect the FM, BF% and FFM of women with sedentary, and can significantly increase the FFM of women with non-sedentary. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of RT on women's body composition varies across different subgroups with different physiological characteristics. As a consequence, it is more recommended to use RT as a training method for women with postmenopausal, overweight/obese or sedentary. which can achieve a better effect of improving body composition.