Background and Aim: Resistance training exercise is one of the most common methods in fitness programs and health programs for athletes and therapists. Manipulation of every variable of training, such as rest intervals changes the adaptation and lead to the acquisition of more strength, higher endurance or biochemical changes in the body or cells. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of two resistance exercise (RE) protocols with different rest intervals (RI) on serum homocysteine and CRP concentrations.

Material and Methods: This study included sedentary men between 19-28years of age who were randomly divided into 3 groups: two experimental groups including RE with RI of 90 (n=10) seconds and RE with RI of 180 seconds (n=10), and a control group (n=10). Exercise protocol included 8 exercises with intensity of 50% of 1RM in the first session and 85% of 1RM in the last session. The participants' weight, body fat percentage and body mass index were measured before and after intervention.In addition fasting homocysteine and CRP levels were measured by use of ELISA method before and after the exercise program for the 3 groups. ANOVA test was used to analyze the data. We used Benferoni statistical test in order to determine and arrange the mean differences within every group.

Results: The results showed that resistance training for eight weeks with different RI can lead to significant decrease in the levels of homocysteine and CRP in healthy sedentary men.

Conclusion: Circuit resistance training with different RI decreased the serum levels of homocysteine and CRP in the healthy sedentary men. Therefore, these exercises may decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: Resistance training, Rest interval, C-reactive protein (CRP), Homocysteine

Received: Aug 31, 2016      Accepted: Sep 27, 2016