Comparison of the effect of eight weeks of Rhythmic aerobic training and CX-WORX on cholesterol transport and inflammatory factors in obese women

BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with a wide range of complications and an increased risk of premature occurrence of physical problems, mental disorders, and some diseases. Doing sports activities along with other treatment strategies can be an effective solution to overcome this problem. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the effect of balanced aerobic exercise and CX-WORK on the expression of growth genes, metabolic biomarkers, and indicators of reverse cholesterol transport in obese women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this semi-experimental study, with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group, 45 individuals with an average age of 25.47 years and a BMI between 30 and 35 kg/m2 were purposefully selected among the obese women of Isfahan City and were randomly divided to three groups of 15 individuals; Balanced aerobic exercises, CX-WORK and control exercises. Rhythmic aerobic training protocol including eight weeks, rhythmic movements accompanied by music, and three sessions of 40 to 50 min per week was implemented incrementally. The CX-WORK exercise program was performed for eight weeks, three sessions a week and each session lasted 30 min. This program was done in six stages warming up, strength and endurance movements related to central muscles 1, standing endurance movements 1, standing endurance movements 2, strength and endurance movements related to central muscles 2, and strength and endurance movements related to central muscles 3. Blood sampling was conducted to estimate the study variables and to measure height, weight, and BMI index in two stages pre-test and post-test. To test the significance of group mean differences, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey’s post hoc test were used using SPSS software version 26 at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The results of the study showed that in both experimental groups; The expression of GH, IGF-1, Follistatin, ABCG1, ABCG5, and ABCG8 genes increased significantly ( P ≥ 0.05). In addition, a significant decrease was observed in both experimental groups in myostatin, IL-6, and CRP gene expression in obese women ( P ≥ 0.05). In addition, although there was a difference between the effects of the two types of exercise on these variables, this difference was not significant ( P ≤ 0.05). CONCLUSION: These results showed the beneficial effects of balanced aerobic exercise and CX-WORK on the expression of growth genes, metabolic biomarkers, and indicators of reverse cholesterol transport in obese women. Therefore, the use of these training methods is recommended as a suitable prevention and treatment method for obesity and improving the aforementioned indicators.