The effects of aerobic exercises on cardiovascular risk factors of sedentary women

This study was carried out with the aim of comparing the effects of ten weeks aerobic exercises on cardiovascular risk factors of sedentary women. Totally 30 sedentary women participated in this study voluntarily. The volunteers were aged between 35 and 40 years, staff of working at Inonu University, and did not have any health problems and regular exercising routines. All subjects were divided into two groups: 15 subjects for run-walk exercise and 15 subjects for step-aerobics exercise that realized duration of 45 minutes for 4 days in a week throughout 10 weeks. The training intensity was defined at 75% of maximal heart rate. The heart rate determined separately for each subject, and exercises were applied according to this interval. Participants' height, body weight, body composition, body mass index (BMI) and blood lipid levels were measured and compared according to pre- test and post-test scores of the 10-week training program. Paired Samples-t Test was used for the differences between pre-test and post-test values of subjects. p<0.01 and p<0.05 were accepted for the level of significance. After 10 weeks exercises of this study, there were decreases in run-walk group of body weight by 3.58%, BMI by 4.40%, total cholesterol by 6.44%, LDL-K by 7.93%, and triglyceride by 17.75%, but there was not any difference in value of HDL-K. There were decreases in step-aerobics group of body weight by 5.35%, BMI by 5.43%, total cholesterol by 10.54%, LDL-K by 9.05%, and triglyceride by 15.24% (p<0.01 and p<0.05), however, there was increasing in value of HDL-K by 5.64% (p<0.05). The results of study showed that maintaining a healthy life would be more appropriate in step-aerobics exercises due to have high tempos and rhythms than the run-walk exercises.