Effect of 12 Weeks Resistance Training on Heart’s Health Characteristics in Elderly Women

Studies have shown that exercise affects the heart characteristics; therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the Effect of 12 weeks Resistance training on heart’s functional characteristics in elderly women.

 The research method was quasi-experimental and the research design was pre-test, post-test, follow up with experimental and control groups. The statistical population of the study consisted of elderly in Kermanshah Welfare Center. The sampling method was purposive and based on inclusion and exclusion criteria among 60-65 years old women. 27 persons were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Echocardiography was used to measure heart structure and function. Repeated measurement test was used to determine the effectiveness of exercise and Bonferroni test was used at the P≤0.05 level. All calculations were performed using SPSS 24 software.

The results showed that in all functional variables, the difference between pre-test and post-test was significant in the experimental group (p<.001). Due to the difference in the means, scores from pre-test to post-test increased. There was also a significant difference between the mean post-test and follow-up of the experimental group (p<0.001). Also in all functional variables, the difference between pre-test and post-test in control group was not significant (p= 1.000). Due to the difference in the means, pre-test to post-test scores did not change significantly. (p<.05).

According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that 12 weeks of resistance training had a significant effect on the functional parameters of the heart of elderly women.
Keywords: Resistance training, functional characteristics, Heart, Elderly women.