The effects of the number of sessions of continuous and intermittent aerobic training in a week on markers of healthy heart in menopause Wistars rats

(Received 1 March, 2010 ; Accepted 19 April, 2010)AbstractBackground and purpose: The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of three and five sessions of continuous and intermittent aerobic training in a week on some markers of healthy heart (high sensitive C- reactive protein [HS-CRP], LDL-C and HDL-C) in female Wistars rats of strain 14848. Materials and methods: Eighty-eight rats weighting 325.6 ± 4.93 gram and 21.5 months old, with 3 months fertility period were prepared and divided randomly into three groups: Control, continuous and intermittent with 5 and 3 sessions of aerobic training in a week, and three subgroups including pre-test, mid-test and post-test. Continuous training protocol was performed during 12 weeks, 3 or 5 sessions a week, with progressive speed 12 to 23 meter per minute and duration of 10 to 122 minutes. Blood samples were drawn following 12-14 hrs fasting in three phases at the baseline level. With similar situations and HS-CRP and or LDL-C and HDL-C were measured via immunoturbidimetric assay and enzymatic method, respectively. Data were analyzed using ANOVA considering P 0.05 as significance level. Results: The results showed that HS-CRP levels in control group increased significantly in the 6- and 12-week period. However, in both continuous and intermittence aerobic training groups, insignificant decrease was seen in the first 6 weeks. In addition, assessment of the difference of HS-CRP, LDL-C and HDL-C among the groups showed that the difference was significant between the control and the 5 sessions continuous groups after 6 and 12 weeks. Conclusion: These findings suggest that although the effectiveness of 5 sessions of training in a week is generally more than continuous training, the duration of training is more important than the frequency of the training sessions per week to inhibit the inflammatory response.Key words: Exercise, C-reactive protein, rats, menopauseJ Mazand Univ Med Sci 2009; 20(74): 44-53 (Persian).