Effect of Eight-Week Aerobic, Resistive, and Interval Exercise Routines on Respiratory Parameters in Non-Athlete Women

BACKGROUND: There are not many studies about the effects of physical activity on pulmonary function in normal population. However, it seems that strengthening and persevering respiratory muscles is an effective technique for improving pulmonary function. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of eight-week aerobic, resistance, and interval exercise routines on respiratory parameters in non-athlete women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-six non-athlete women between 18–25 years old participated in this prospective quasi-experimental trial. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups (aerobic, resistance and interval exercise, 12 in each group). Each group exercised three times a week for a total of eight weeks (24 sessions in total). Pulmonary function tests (PFT), including tidal volume (VT), inspiratory reserve volume (IRV), expiratory reserve volume (ERV), inspiratory capacity (IC), vital capacity (VC), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in the first seconds (FEV(1)), the ratio of FEV(1)/FVC, peak inspiratory flow (PIF), and forced expiratory flow (FEF 25–75%) were recorded before and after the implementation of the exercise program for all participants. Data were analyzed using paired t-test and one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 20.17 ± 2.13. The results of the paired T-test indicated that VC significantly increased in the group assigned to aerobic exercise (P = 0.028), while IC (P = 0.012) and PIF (P = 0.019) significantly increased in the group assigned to interval training. CONCLUSION: Our results showed that interval and aerobic exercise routines could improve pulmonary functions and aerobic and interval training can be used to increase VC, IC, PIF, in non-athlete women.