Interindividual responses to different exercise stimuli among insulin‐resistant women

Abstract

We aimed to investigate which among 20 cardiometabolic and performance outcomes do and do not respond to high‐intensity interval training (HIT), resistance training (RT), or concurrent training (CT) in insulin‐resistant adult women. A secondary aim was to report the training‐induced changes and the prevalence of non‐responders. Forty‐five insulin‐resistant adult women were randomly assigned to one of the following 4 groups: HIT (39.2 ± 9.5 years [y]; body mass index [BMI], 29.3 ± 3.3; n = 14), RT (33.9 ± 9.3 y; BMI, 29.4 ± 5.5; n = 8), CT (43.3 ± 8.1 y; BMI, 29.1 ± 2.9; n = 10), and a control group (CG, 40.1 ± 11.4 y; BMI, 28.3 ± 3.5; n = 13). Nine body composition, 3 cardiovascular, 3 metabolic, and 5 performance outcomes were assessed at baseline and after 12 weeks of intervention. Considering all outcomes, the lowest number of total non‐responses for one or more variables was found in the RT group, followed by the CT and HIT groups. Individuals in the CG group were classified as non‐responders for almost all the variables. Moreover, there were several significant changes in body composition and metabolic parameters, including fasting glucose (HIT: −5.7, RT −5.1 mg/d), fasting insulin (HIT: −0.6, RT −0.6 μIU/mL), and HOMA‐IR (HIT: −0.3, RT −0.4), in addition to improvements in cardiovascular and performance parameters. Also, there were significant differences among groups in the prevalence of non‐responders for the variables where a non‐response was detected. Overall, the study suggests that independent of the mode of training including volume and frequency, RT has an important ability to reduce the prevalence of non‐response to improve the 20 outcomes of health and performance in insulin‐resistant adult women.