The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of either endurance training only or endurance and weight training on muscle morphology and oxidative enzyme activities in human skeletal muscles. Fourteen healthy males were randomly divided into one of two experimental training groups, either swim exercise training (n=7, ST) or combined exercise training (swim and resistance exercise training; n=7, SWT). The change of muscle fiber type was not significantly different between ST and SWT following 6 weeks of exercise training. Mean cross sectional areas as well as the numbers of capillary of different types of muscle fiber were not also significantly different from baseline for both exercise training groups (p>.05) although the tendency of increase were more notable in SWT. All oxidative enzyme activities (i.e., β-hydroxyl acyl dehydrogenase, citrate synthase, and carnitine palmitoyl transferase) were marginally higher in SWT compared to ST even though statistical power did not reach the level of significance. Based on these results, it was concluded that performing of combined (swimming and weight) exercise training could be the better modality for improving muscle morphological changes and oxidative enzyme activities than performing of only single aerobic exercise intervention in young healthy human skeletal muscles.
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