Combined training (aerobic plus strength) potentiates a reduction in body fat but demonstrates no difference on the lipid profile in postmenopausal women when compared to aerobic training with a similar training load

The aim of this study was to verify the effects of aerobic and combined training on the body composition and lipid profile of obese postmenopausal women and to analyze which of these models is more effective after equalizing the training load. Sixty five postmenopausal women (age=61.0±6.3 years) were divided into three groups: Aerobic Training (AT,n= 15), Combined Training (CT,[strength+aerobic],n=32) and control group (CG,n=18). Their body composition: upper body fat (TF), fat mass (FM), percentage of fat mass and fat free mass (FFM) were estimated by DXA. The lipid profile, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were assessed. There was a statistically significant difference in the TF (AT= -4.4 %, CT= -4.4%, and CG= 1.0%, p= 0.001) and FFM (AT= 1.7%, CT= 2.6%, and CG= -1.4%, p= 0.0001) between the experimental and the control groups. Regarding the percentage of body fat, there was a statistically significant difference only between the CT and CG groups (AT= -2.8%, CT= -3.9% and CG= 0.31%, p= 0.004). When training loads were equalized, the aerobic and combined training decreased core fat and increased fat-free mass, but only the combined training potentiated a reduction in percentage of body fat in obese postmenopausal women after the training program. HDL-c levels increased in the combined group and the chol/HDL ratio (atherogenic index) decreased in the aerobic group, however, there were no significant differences between the intervention programs. Taken together, both the exercise training programs were effective for improving body composition and inducing an anti-atherogenic status.

Compact setup for reflection holography with Bi12TiO 20 crystals

A novel optical setup for imaging through reflection holography with Bi12TiO20 (BTO) sillenite photorefractive crystals is proposed. Aiming a compact, robust and simple optical setup the lensless Denisiuk arrangement was chosen, using a He-Ne red laser as light source. In this setup the holographic medium is placed between the light source and the object. The beam impinging the crystal front face is the reference one, while the light scattered by the surface is the object beam in a holographic recording by diffusion. In order to allow the readout of the diffracted wave only and to keep the setup simplicity a polarizing beam splitter cube (PBS) was positioned at the BTO input. The reference beam is s-polarized (polarization direction perpendicular to the table top) and the crystal. 〈001〉-axis is rotated by an angle γ with respect to the input polarization in order to make the transmitted object beam and the diffracted beam to have orthogonal polarizations. While the transmitted wave is reflected by the PBS at a right angle, the diffracted wave carrying the holographic reconstruction of the object passes through the PBS, being collected by a positive lens in order to form the holographic image at a CCD camera. The holographic recording with the grating vector is parallel to the 〈100〉-axis. An expression for the diffracted wave intensity as a function of γ was derived, and this relation was experimentally investigated. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.