Effects of high intensity aerobic training and circuit training on body composition in fitness men

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of four weeks of high intensity aerobic training and circuit training on body composition in physically active men. The two groups were monitored with the use of Polar H7 heart rate sensors, connected with the Polar Team heart rate detection system (Polar electro Oy, Kempele, Finland), while for the evaluation of body composition the Tanita Analyser MC-780MA was used (Tanita, Tokyo, Japan). The results obtained showed that the aerobic training group (AT) showed significant differences in BMI (Table 2, Δ=0.2), body mass (Table 2, Δ=0.9), fat mass (Table 2, Δ=0.9), and fat mass percentage (Table 2, Δ=0.9), except in the lean mass (Table 2, Δ=0.0); the circuit training group (CT) also showed a significant reduction in all body composition parameters (Table 2), including lean mass (Table 2, Δ=0.3). There were no significant differences in body composition parameters between the AT and CT groups (Table 2) after the training program, except for lean mass, which increased significantly only in the CT group (Table 2, Δ=0.3). In conclusion, the present study suggests that high-intensity aerobic training or high-intensity circuit training produces similar benefits in improving the body composition in physically active men, even when their diet is not controlled.