BACKGROUND: It is unknown whether a shorter duration of high-intensity circuit training (HICT) could improve health-related fitness in sedentary women. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the effects of 4 weeks of HICT using body weight (HICTBW) on cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition in middle aged, sedentary women. METHODS: Twenty-four women (age 35 +/- 3 years), who currently participated in exercise for less than 2 days or 150 minutes per week, were randomly assigned to either an untrained (CG; n = 12) or trained (TG; n = 12) group. The TG group performed a HICTBW program for four weeks (3 times weekly), whereas the CG group performed their usual activity. All participants were asked to maintain their current eating habits. Parameters were compared before and after 4 weeks. RESULTS: Exercise VO2peak, relative VO2peak, heart rate and workload significantly increased over the 4-week period in the TG compared with CG at the end of the 4 weeks of training (p < 0.05). However, there were also no differences between groups in any body composition parameters at the end of the 4-week program (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that a 4-week HICTBW program (12 poses per circuit, 8 minutes each circuit three times weekly for 4 weeks) was sufficient to improve cardiorespiratory fitness but had no effect on body composition or weight loss in sedentary women who did not change their dietary habits.

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