Introduction: High levels of inflammatory markers are associated with several chronic diseases such as atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes. Exercise and physical activity is accepted as a sterategy to reduce these diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 10 weeks resistance and aerobic training on resting levels of tumor necrosis factor-&alpha (TNF-&alpha), interleukin-1&beta (IL-1&beta) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in sedentary overweight men.

Materials & methods: Thirty sedentary men with average ages 26.6±2.9 yr, and body mass index 28.3±1.8 kg/m2, randomly were assigned to resistance training (n=10), aerobic training (n=11), and control (n=9) groups. Fasting blood sample were collected before and after 10 weeks from intervention, and resting levels of cytokines were measured. Also body mass index, waist to hip ratio, body fat percent, maximal strength and maximal oxygen uptake was estimated. Resistance training program consists of 7 exercises at 70-80% of 10-repetition maximum in each exercise, and aerobic training included cycling on ergometer at 70-80% maximal heart rate for 10 weeks and three sessions per week.

Findings: After 10 weeks resistance and aerobic training despite a decrease in the average, no significant change was observed in resting levels of TNF-a, IL-1b and IL-6 (p˃0.05). VO2max showed significantly increase, body fat percent and waist to hip ratio significant decrease in both training groups, and maximal strength significant increase only in resistance training (p˂0.05).

Discussion & Conclusion: These results indicated that 10 weeks resistance and aerobic training with moderate intensity and volume are not sufficient to reduce inflammatory cytokines in sedentary healthy overweight men. It can be concluded that the probable reason for not reducing of this cytokines is because of the normal concentrations in baseline and the subjects being young.

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