BACKGROUND: Obesity and physical inactivity increase the risk for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia and certain cancers. Exercise training and increased fitness promote positive changes in body composition and improve insulin sensitivity. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of sequence order of combined strength and endurance training on new adiposity indices: visceral adiposity index (VAI), body adiposity index (BAI) and waist to hip ratio (WHtR) in overweight elderly women. METHODS: Forty overweight elderly women (age range 60.34 +/- 0.82 years old) were selected purposefully and randomly assigned into four groups: endurance, then strength (E-S) (n = 9), strength, then endurance (S-E) (n = 10), alternative concurrent training (ACT) (n = 12), and control (n = 9) groups. Training was performed three times per week for eight weeks. Endurance training performed on a cycle ergometer (intensity 60 to 88% MHR) and strength training included several selected exercises targeting upper and lower body (intensity 40 to 75 1RM, 8 to 18 repeat). RESULTS: The results showed that the amount of weight, BMI, body fat percentage, BAI and WHtR have significantly decreased in E-S, S-E and ACT experimental groups (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found in VAI variable and triglyceride with sequence order of E-S and S-E, but after sequence order of ACT a significant decrease was seen in both variables (p >= 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the three combined training groups for the mentioned variables (p >= 0.05). CONCLUSION: Sequence does not seem to play a role in the positive effect on current adiposity indices of the investigated training programs.

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