Exercise Training and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Males with Overweight or Obesity: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Plain-language summary

This review asked how different kinds of exercise change heart and metabolic risk markers in men who are overweight or obese. It collected 25 randomized controlled trials published between 2005 and 2023, covering blood pressure, blood fats and blood sugar control. Interval training, which is short all-out efforts with easy recovery between them rather than one steady pace, went with a fall in blood pressure averaging 12.5 mmHg, and how big that fall was varied a lot between trials. Resistance training went with modest improvements in blood sugar control, with some trials reporting fasting glucose 5 to 10 percent lower. Programs combining aerobic and resistance training, and aerobic exercise on its own, went with better blood fat readings. The review reports no blood pressure figure for the other kinds of training, so it does not say which one moves blood pressure most. It did not pool the trials into a single number either, so these are the authors' readings across a varied set of studies.

Key findings

• Interval training, short all-out efforts with easy recovery between them, went with a fall in blood pressure averaging 12.5 mmHg.
• How large that fall was varied a lot between the trials.
• Resistance training went with modest improvements in blood sugar control, with some trials reporting fasting glucose 5 to 10 percent lower.
• Programs combining aerobic and resistance training, and aerobic exercise alone, went with better blood fat readings.
• The review gives no blood pressure figure for the other kinds of training, so it does not rank them against each other.