A Comparative Study on the Effects of Resistance and Aerobic Trainings on the Rate of Changes in Bone Mineral Density among Female University Students

Steoporosis is currently one of the prevalent diseases. The effect of exercise on bone marrow density (BMD) has been documented for all age groups. The aim of this research was to compare the effects of endurance vs. resistance trainings on local Bone Mineral Density (BMD) changes. Thirty-six volunteer female university students (age average: 22.58±1.56; Body Mass Index average: 22.85±2.17), with sedentary lifestyles, were selected and randomly divided to three groups (n=12 in each group). These groups were determined as: The endurance group who ran for 36 sessions on a treadmill over a period of 3 weeks at 70 to 80 percent of the maximum heart-beat rate. They were required to run for 40 minutes per session on the other hand, the resistance group received 36 circuit training sessions at the rate of 70 to 80 percent of 1RM with 6 to 8 repetitions in 3 sets with 2 minutes of rest in between. The third group of the study was the control group.Both the endurance and the resistance training protocols induced significant increases in BMD in the areas of lumbar, neck and femur (P<0.05). However, the variation was more significant for the endurance group in the neck and femur while it was in the aerobic group where better effects were observed in the lumbar region (P<0.05). There was no considerable differences between the two modes of exercise (i.e. endurance and resistance) in terms of the increase of skeleton’s local bone mineral density.