Aerobic, resistance, or combined exercise training and cardiovascular risk profile in overweight or obese adults: the CardioRACE trial

To determine the comparative efficacy of resistance, aerobic, and combined resistance plus aerobic exercise on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile.

This randomized controlled trial enrolled 406 adults aged 35–70 years with overweight or obesity and elevated blood pressure. Participants were randomly assigned to resistance (n = 102), aerobic (n = 101), combined resistance plus aerobic exercise (n = 101), or no-exercise control (n = 102). All exercise participants were prescribed 1 h of time-matched supervised exercise (the combination group with 30 min of each resistance and aerobic exercise) three times per week for 1 year. The primary outcome was the change from baseline to 1 year in the standardized composite Z-score of four well-established CVD risk factors: systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose, and per cent body fat.

Among 406 participants (53% women), 381 (94%) completed 1-year follow-up. Compared with the control group, the composite Z-score decreased at 1 year, which indicates improved CVD risk profile, in the aerobic {mean difference, −0.15 [95% confidence interval (CI): −0.27 to −0.04]; P = .01} and combination [mean difference, −0.16 (95% CI: −0.27 to −0.04); P = .009] groups, but not in the resistance [mean difference, −0.02 (95% CI: −0.14 to 0.09); P = .69] group. Both aerobic and combination groups had greater reductions in the composite Z-score compared with the resistance group (both P = .03), and there was no difference between the aerobic and combination groups (P = .96). Regarding the four individual CVD risk factors, only per cent body fat decreased in all three exercise groups at 1 year, but systolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and fasting glucose did not decrease in any exercise groups, compared with the control group.

In adults with overweight or obesity, aerobic exercise alone or combined resistance plus aerobic exercise, but not resistance exercise alone, improved composite CVD risk profile compared with the control.