The effect of circuit resistance training with 40, 60 and 80 percent of one-repetition maximum on the levels of IL-10, IL-1β and body fat percent in obese postmenopausal women

Introduction: Adipose tissue plays an important role in increasing systemic inflammation and exercise training result in modulating inflammation by decreasing adipose tissue. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of 12 weeks circuit resistance training with 40, 60 and 80 percent of one-repetition maximum (1RM) on the levels of IL-10, IL-1β and body fat percent in obese postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: Forty four  postmenopausal women (average age of 56.07 ± 3.18 years old) randomly divided into four group (each group 11 subjects) including the control and circuit resistance training with 40 (RT40), 60 (RT60) and 80 (RT80) percentage of 1RM. Exercise training program was conducted for 12 weeks and three session per week. Blood samples collected before and after the exercise training period. The ELISA method was used to measure the levels of IL-10 and IL-1β and data analysis performed with Graphpad Prism software. Results: IL-10 levels in trained groups compared to control group indicated significant increase (P < 0.05), in which the increase in RT60 (P = 0.014) and RT80 (P < 0.001) groups were also significant compared to the RT40 group. In addition, significant decrease of IL-1β in RT40 (P = 0.003), RT60 (P < 0.001) and RT80 (P < 0.001) groups compared to control group were observed, as such, IL-1β decrease in RT80 group compared to RT40 (P < 0.001) and RT60 (P = 0.001) group was also significant. Moreover, different intensity circuit resistance training was associated with decrease in percent body fat (P < 0.05), which further decreases reported in the RT60 and RT80 groups. Conclusion: Despite the anti-inflammatory effects of different intensities of circuit resistance training, the higher intensity of exercise training can be associated with greater effectiveness in reducing inflammation and strengthening the anti-inflammatory pathways.