The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of 12 weeks combined exercise on health-related fitness, blood lipids, and cortisol in obese postmenopausal women.
The subjects for the study were twenty obese postmenopausal women composed of the combined exercise group(n=10) or to a “no exercise” control group(n=10).
The variables of health-related fitness, blood lipids and cortisol concentration were measured in all the subjects before the start of the training program and after at the end of the 12 weeks combined exercise training.
The test data were analyzed by t-test, paired t-test, and the alpha level of p<.05 was set for all tests of significance.
The findings of this study were as follows;

1. Effects on Health-related fitness

In the combined exercise group, the body weight and BMI had significantly decreased, and the 20m shuttle run, sit-ups and sitting trunk flexion had significantly increased.

2. Effects on blood lipids

In the combined exercise group, the total cholesterol(TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol(LDL-C), and triglyceride(TG) had significantly decreased. Also, it has noted that high density lipoprotein-cholesterol(HDL-C) was slightly higher in exercise group than in control group, but the difference was not statistically significant.

3. Effects on cortisol

The combined exercise group and control group at baseline was similar in cortisol level. However, after the combined exercise program, the combined group had significantly higher cortisol level than did the control group.

In conclusion, the body weight, BMI, TC, TG and LDL-C had significantly decreased, but HDL-C, 20m shuttle run, sit-ups and sitting trunk flexion had significantly increased in the combined exercise group after the 12 weeks combined exercise.
Therefore, regular and continuous aerobic exercise and resistance exercise were effective in improving the body composition, blood lipids and health-related fitness.