Resistance exercise training-induced skeletal muscle strength provides protective effects on high-fat-diet-induced metabolic stress in mice

BACKGROUND: Resistance exercise training is known to improve metabolic disorders, such as obesity and type2 diabetes. In this study, we investigated whether the beneficial effects of resistance exercise training persisted even after the discontinuation of training with high-fat diet (HFD)-induced metabolic stress. We further evaluated whether the improvement in skeletal muscle strength and endurance by training were correlated with improved metabolism. Eight-week-old male C57BL/6N mice were divided into groups that remained sedentary or had access to daily resistance exercise via ladder climbing for 8 weeks. Trained and untrained mice were fed an HFD for 1 week after the exercise training intervention (n = 5–8 per group). RESULTS: Resistance exercise-trained mice had a lean phenotype and counteracted diet-induced obesity and glucose tolerance, even after exercise cessation. Grip strength was significantly inversely correlated with the body weight, fat mass, and glucose tolerance. However, hanging time was significantly inversely correlated with body weight only. CONCLUSIONS: These results have strong implications for the preventive effect of resistance exercise-induced metabolic improvement by enhancing skeletal muscle strength rather than endurance. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42826-022-00145-0.