Effect of ten weeks of combined exercise on growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-2 and myostatin levels in elderly Korean women

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of 10 weeks of combined exercise on growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-2 (IGF-2) and myostatin levels in elderly Korean women. Subjects were randomly assigned to the combined exercise group (CEG; n=17) or the control group (CG; n=17). The CEG performed 80 minutes of exercise, 5 days per week for 10 weeks. Each exercise session included four phases: a 10-minute warm-up; a 30-minute resistance exercises (10 to 15 repetitions maximum); a 30-minute aerobics exercise (60 to 80% of heart rate reserve); and a 20-minute cool-down. The interaction effect (time x group) on the levels of GH (F=6.934, p=0.013) and IGF-2 (F=8.592, p=0.006), increased significantly more in the CEG than in the CG, whereas the interaction effect for the myostatin levels (F=13.544, p<0.001) decreased significantly more in the CEG than in the CG. The 10 weeks of supervised combined exercise was effective for increasing GH and IGF-2 levels and decreasing myostatin levels in elderly Korean women.