Effects of aerobic exercise combined with resistance training on health-related physical fitness in adolescents: A randomized controlled trial

Background: /Objective: This study aimed to compare the effects of two combined training methods on health-related physical fitness components in adolescents.Methods: Seventy-six adolescents (16.1 +/- 1.1 years, n = 44 female) were randomized into groups of moderate-intensity continuous training combined with resistance training (MICT + RT), high-intensity interval training combined with resistance training (HIIT + RT), or Control. The training sessions were performed twice weekly for 12 weeks. The health-related physical fitness components evaluated were: body composition, muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness.Results: The intervention groups had a significant reduction in body fat percentage and improvement in abdominal repetitions and VO2peak after 12 weeks of combined exercise program (p < 0.001). Intervention effects were found to significantly reduce body fat percentage for the MICT + RT and HIIT + RT groups compared to the control group (mean difference: -3.8; 95% CI:-6.2;-1 0.3; mean difference:-4.7; 95%CI:-7.1;-2.3, respectively). For muscle fitness, significant effects of the intervention were found in increasing the number of abdominal repetitions favoring the MICT + RT group compared to the control group (mean difference: 9.5; 95% CI: 4.4; 14.7) and HIIT + RT compared to the control group (mean difference: 14.1; 95% CI 9; 19.3). For cardiorespiratory fitness, significant effects of the intervention on improving VO2peak were found in the experimental groups (MICT + RT vs Control group: mean difference: 4.4; 95% CI: 2.2; 6.6; and HIIT + RT vs. Control group: mean difference: 5.5, 95% CI: 3.3; 7.7).Conclusion: The results suggest that 12 weeks of training using MCIT + RT or HIIT + RT showed a similar effect for health-related physical fitness components in adolescents.(c) 2022 The Society of Chinese Scholars on Exercise Physiology and Fitness. Published by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommo ns.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).