The Effects of Three Aerobic, Resistance and Concurrent Training Programs on Plasma Myostatin Levels in Overweight Non-Athletic Men

The results of many researches show that plasma myostatin negatively regulates muscle mass. Therefore، the aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of aerobic، resistance and concurrent training programs on the plasma myostatin levels in overweight non-athletic men. In this semi-experimental research، 39 non-athletic students (range of age 18-27 years old and BMI between 25-30) voluntarily participated in this study and were randomly assigned to aerobic training (n=8)، resistance training (n=8)، concurrent training (n=12) and control group (n=11). Theexperimental groups performed their training protocol for 8 weeks and 3 sessions per week while control group did not participate in any training program. The training protocol of the resistance group consisted of 5 resistance exercises with weights at 50- 80% of 1RM، for aerobic group consisted of aerobic running with 65-85% HRmax for 25-40 min. and for concurrent group consisted of both resistance and aerobic training protocols. 5 mm blood was collected from antecubital vein of the subjects (in fasting state) before and 48 h after the last session of the protocol. The results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant change in myostatin between concurrent and resistance (p=0. 029)، control (p=0. 000) and aerobic groups (p=0. 000) and also between resistance and control groups (p=0. 044) but there was not a significant difference between aerobic and control groups (p=0. 919). Therefore، it can be concluded that resistance and concurrent training can be an effective way of preventing muscle atrophy and sarcopenia while muscle sarcopenia is more likely in aerobic training.