AIM: To observe the effect of aerobic exercise on the related physiological and biochemical indexes in physique of post-menopausal women. METHODS: The experiment was carried out in the Sport Rehabilitation Center of Shaoyang College from March to December 2005. Twenty-four post-menopausal women of 50 to 65 years, who voluntarily received the rehabilitation training, were selected and randomly assigned to aerobic exercise group and control group with 12 women in each group. They kept their habits in diet and general activities according to the time table and living rule. The aerobic exercise mainly referred to jogging, and target heart rate for the intensity was calculated by: (maximal heart rate - resting heart rate) x 0.6 to 0.85 + resting heart rate; meanwhile, the exercise intensity was monitored by rating of perceived exertion, whose Borg mark was scored from 12 to 16 (slightly tired to tired). The exercise every time lasted for 40 minutes, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week; there were 10 to 15 minutes warming up before exercise and 5 minutes warming-down after. The height, body mass, basic heart rate, blood pressure, waist circumference, hip circumference, fat rate, blood glucose and lipid were measured before and 12 weeks after exercise for comparison. RESULTS: All the 24 post-menopausal women were involved in the result analysis. The body mass, waist circumference, hip circumference and fat rate of the aerobic exercise group after exercise were significantly decreased compared with those before exercise (after 23.1 +/- 3.0 kg/m2, 75.1 +/- 3.6 cm, 91.8 +/- 6.0 cm, 26.1 +/- 4.2%; before 24.8 +/- 3.5 kg/m2, 76.5 +/- 4.2 cm, 93.9 +/- 6.4 cm, 27.8 +/- 3.0%, p < 0.05); there were significant differences in the fat rate between exercise group and control group (27.1 +/- 3.7%, p < 0.05). After training, the resting heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure of the exercise group were remarkably reduced compared with those before exercise (after 70.7 +/- 4.8 times/mm, 107.5 +/- 16.8 mmHg (1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa), 73.6 +/- 12.1 mmHg; before 74.7 +/- 4.8 times/mm, 114.3 +/- 12.9 mmHg, 76.0 +/- 6.6 mmHg, p < 0.01); there were significant differences compared with the control group (74.7 +/- 5.1 times/mm, 114.0 +/- 15.1 mmHg, 75.4 +/- 13.3 mmHg, p < 0.05). The aerobic exercise increased the grasp force, back strength and maximal oxygen consumption (25.2 +/- 3.8 kg, 63.2 +/- 4.4 kg, 49.8 +/- 0.9 mL/kg/min) compared with those before exercise (p < 0.05), and the back strength of the exercise group differed remarkably from the control group 1 (59.2 +/- 3.3 kg, p < 0.05). In the exercise group, there were no obvious changes in the glucose level before and after exercise (p > 0.05), so was the cholesterol level compared with that before exercise and control group (p > 0.05), the contents of triglyceride and low density lipoprotein cholesterol were lower than those before exercise (p < 0.05), while the high density lipoprotein cholesterol was higher than before exercise (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The aerobic exercise could improve the physique of post-menopausal women and serve as an effective measure to prevent and cure the coronary artery disease.

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