Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Background and Objectives: Studies are indicative of negative regulatory role of myostatin in skeletal muscle growth. In the present study, the effect of 10 weeks of resistance training was investigated on serum level of myostatin and body composition in obese adolescents.

Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 16 students of Mohammad Naraghi Technical and Vocational Institute of Kashan with body mass index of 30-35, were purposefully selected and randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. Resistance training program included 3 sets of 8-10 reps with 50-90% 1RM for 3 days a week. Before starting the training program and 48 h after the last training session, blood samples were taken from all participants. Before and after the training, plasma level of myostatin were measured. Data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov, dependent t-, and independent t-tests at significance level of p<0.05.

Results: In this study, 10 weeks of resistance training resulted in a significant decrease in serum level of myostatin (p=0.0001), weight (p=0.015), body mass index (p=0.02), and fat percentage (p=0.0001) in the experimental group as compared to the control group (p<0.05).

Conclusion: According to the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that resistance training-induced changes reduce myostatin level and some anthropometric parameters related to obesity and overweight, which may be effective in the prevention of muscle atrophy and loss of muscle mass, and can play a role as an autocrine mechanism for guiding mechanical load stimuli in response to the growth of skeletal muscle.