Effect of Long-Term Pilates Exercise Trainings on Serum Levels of Visfatin, Chemerin and Resistin in Overweight Inactive Women

Background: The role of adipokines has been recognized in metabolic settings and obesity-related disorders. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 12-weeks of Pilates training on serum levels of some adipokines in inactive women with overweight.

Methods: Twenty four accessible healthy overweight women with average BMI of 27.2 ± 1.1 kg/m2 participated in this quasi-experimental study. They randomly divided into two groups: exercise group (n=12) and control group (n=12). Pilates exercise training was performed during 12-weeks (3 sessions per week, 60 min per session). During this period, the control group did not have any exercise activities. Blood samples were taken in two steps 48 hours before and 48 hours after the last session and after 12-14 hours of fasting to measure serum levels of visfatin, chemerin and resistin levels. The dependent t-test was used to examine the within-group changes and covariance analysis was used to examine the changes in between-group changes.

Results: The results of this study showed that after 12-weeks of Pilates exercise training, visfatin (P= 0.012), chemerin (P=0.002) and resistin changes (P=0.005) in the training group had a significant decrease in post-test compared to the pre-test, as well as there was a significant decrease in serum visfatin levels (P = 0.035), chermerin (P = 0.018) and resistin (P=0.045) in the exercise group compared to the control group.

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, Pilates exercise training is a stimulus factor for adipokines levels changes in inactive women with overweight. It is probably one of the causes of physiological changes is the activity of adipokines levels.