The effect of endurance, resistance and combined training on HIF1 gene expression, plasma PGC1a levels and body composition of overweight elderly men

Nowadays, obesity and overweight are known as one of the causes of many diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance, resistance and combined exercises on HIF1 gene expression, PGC1a plasma levels and body composition of overweight elderly men.

The subjects of this study were 40 overweight elderly men who were randomly divided into four endurance groups (n=12), resistance training group (n=12), combined training group (n=12) and control group (n=12) with age ranges. 60.75 ± 3.42 (years), weight 92.06 ± 2.84 (kg), height 1.73 ± 3.25 (m), body mass (kg/m2) 30.51 ± 1.59, the percentage of fat was 28.38 ± 1.40. The resistance training group (60-80% 1RM), the endurance training group (60-75% VO2max) and the combined training group performed their exercises for eight weeks (3 sessions per week). In order to measure HIF1 gene expression in white blood cells, Real-time PCR method and ELISA method was used for PGC1a plasma levels. To analyze the data, one-way Anova and Bonferroni's post hoc test were used at a significance level of 0.05.

The results showed that all three types of exercise significantly increased HIF1 gene expression (P<0.001), increased PGC1a (P<0.001), decreased fat mass (P<0.001), and a significant decrease in body mass index (BMI) (P<0.001) compared to the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the experimental groups.

It seems that endurance, resistance and combined exercises increase factors related to the health of the elderly.