Effect of Sequence Order of Combined Training (Resistance and Endurance) on Strength, Aerobic Capacity, and Body Composition in Older Women

The aging process is a complex medical condition that leads to many unfavorable and inevitable changes in body composition, muscle strength, aerobic capacity, health status, and eventually functional capacity of individuals.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the sequence order of combined training on maximal strength, aerobic capacity, and body composition in older women.

 Forty healthy female volunteers (age = 67.35 ± 1.40 years old) were randomly divided into three experimental groups and one control group: resistance followed by endurance training (E + S, N = 9); endurance training followed by resistance training (S + E, N = 10); alternating concurrent training (ACT, N = 12); and control (C, N = 16) groups. The training program was performed 3 times per week for 8 weeks. All the participants were evaluated before and after the training period.

The intra-session sequence order did not influence the adaptive response of the waist-to-hip ratio (P = 0.55), body fat percentage (BF %) (P = 0.08), and upper-limb maximal strength (P = 0.07) throughout the study. However, there were significant differences between the groups for VO2max (P = 0.029), lower-limb maximal strength (P = 0.000), body mass (P = 0.017), waist circumference (P = 0.006), and body mass index (P = 0.023).

Independent of the training sequence, an 8-week concurrent training program caused positive changes in the body composition and physical fitness of our aged female subjects. However, there was no benefit derived from sequence order training