Takaisin

Aerobic and resistance training and plasma lipids

Näytönastekatsaukset
Tarja Kaipainen
24.9.2026

Level of evidence: B

Aerobic exercise probably produces small reductions in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides and small increases in HDL cholesterol in adults with or without cardiovascular risk factors. Resistance training probably produces small reductions in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. Combined aerobic and resistance training probably results in small increase in HDL cholesterol and small reduction in triglycerides.

Table 1. Description of the included studies
Reference Study type Population Intervention and comparison Outcomes Risk of bias «Additional comments for included studies...»2
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 SR, MA All participants were overweight or obese. Included females and males, age 11–75.
Studies from Asia, Europe, South America
All studies were RCTs of aerobic exercise (AE).
Low intensity AE: 20-40% VO₂max /40-55% HRmax/ 1,6-3 MET/RPE 8-10.
Moderate-intensity AE: n. 40–60 % VO₂max / 55–70 % HRmax / 3–6 MET / RPE 11–13.
Vigorous-intensity AE: n. 60–85 % VO₂max / 70–90 % HRmax / 6–9 MET / RPE 14–16.
Comparison: control / usual care
Total Cholesterol (TC)
HDL Cholesterol (HDL)
LDL Cholesterol (LDL)
Triglycerides (TG)
Low
«Kelley GA, Kelley KS. Impact of progressive resist...»2 MA Adults ≥18 years, sedentary or insufficiently active, healthy or with overweight/obese, type 2 diabetes, CVD history, metabolic abnormalities.
United States, China, UK, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland, and Turkey
RCTs.
Intervention: progressive resistance training: duration 8–78 weeks (mean ~24 weeks), frequency 2–3 sessions/week, intensity 50–87% of 1RM, number of exercises 3–16, sets 1–5.
Comparison: non-exercising control groups.
Primary fasting lipid outcomes:
Total cholesterol (TC)
HDL-C
LDL-C
Triglycerides (TG)
Non-HDL-C
TC/HDL-C ratio
Moderate
«Lin X, Zhang X, Guo J, ym. Effects of Exercise Tra...»3 Active or sedentary healthy or with overweight, dyslipidemia, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes or hypertension
Aged ≥18 years.
North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia
RCTs.
Interventions included structured exercise training, categorized as aerobic exercise training (walking, running, cycling, swimming, ergometer work, cross-training),resistance training,combined aerobic + resistance training.
Training duration 4-52 weeks, at intensities aligned with ACSM guidelines.
Comparison: non-exercising control groups.
Total cholesterol (TC)
Triglycerides (TG)
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)
Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)
Low
«Masmoum MD, Khan S, Usmani WA, ym. The Effectivene...»4 SR, MA Adults ≥18 years with or without cardiovascular risk factors.
United States, Portugal, Korea, the UK, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, the Philippines, Norway, Brazil, and Germany
11 RCTs and 6 cohort studies.
Interventions included aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, or combined training, with durations 6-12 months (RCTs) or follow-up from 8 weeks to 1 year (cohort studies).
Comparison: no exercise, usual care.
Primary: reduction in cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke); secondary: changes in cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body mass index) Moderate
«de Oude KI, Elbers RG, Gerger H, ym. The effect of...»5 SR, MA Participants had one of the following cardiometabolic risk conditions: type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity. Included females and males, age 21–87.
Studies from Asia, North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, Africa.
All studies were RCTs of resistance training.
Interventions were categorized by intensity (the main theme of the review):
low intensity: <60% 1RM, moderate intensity: 60–80% 1RM, high intensity: >80% 1RM, progressive intensity: 50–100% 1RM.
Comparison: control / usual care
Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Moderate
«Liang L, Peng F, Wang L, ym. Effects of exercise o...»6 Adults (≥45 years). with or without stable chronic conditions (e.g., obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease).
United States, Brazil, Japan, Korea, China, European.
Interventions included aerobic exercise, resistance training, stretching, or combined training.
Duration 4-52 weeks, 1-6 times/week, delivered in structured supervised or unsupervised formats.
Comparison: non-exercise control groups.
HDL-cholesterol Low
«Kodama S, Tanaka S, Saito K, ym. Effect of aerobic...»7 MA Adults ≥18 years with or without cardiovascular risk factors.
North America, Europe, and Japan
RCTs.
Intervention: aerobic exercise training (i.e.walking, jogging, cycling, continuous swimming). Mean 3.7 sessions per week, session duration of 40.5 minutes, mean relative intensity ~65% of maximal aerobic capacity, and absolute intensity ~5.3 METs, corresponding to an estimated weekly energy expenditure ~1019 kcal.
Comparison: non-exercising control groups.
HDL-C Moderate
RCT=randomized controlled trial; SR=systematic review; MA=meta-analysis; VO₂max=; HRmax=maximal heart rate; MET=metabolic equivalents. RPE=rating of perceived exertion; TC=total cholesterol; LDL-C=low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HDL-C=high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; TG=triglycerides; ACSM=American College of Sports Medicine
Table 2. Additional comments for included studies
Reference Comments
«Kelley GA, Kelley KS. Impact of progressive resist...»2 Risk of bias due to limitations in study quality and methodological assessment.
Total participants in 31 exercise groups were 1329 (676 exercise, 653 control).
«Lin X, Zhang X, Guo J, ym. Effects of Exercise Tra...»3 Exercise frequency varied across the 160 trials, but study did not summarize or report the weekly training frequency across studies
«Masmoum MD, Khan S, Usmani WA, ym. The Effectivene...»4 Risk of bias due to inconsistent study quality, very high heterogeneity, and lack of sensitivity analyses comparing low-risk studies with the full dataset.
«de Oude KI, Elbers RG, Gerger H, ym. The effect of...»5 Risk of bias assessment showed concerns due to bias within the randomization process, missing outcome data, high variability between studies and reported results. The heterogeneity for moderate and high intensity resistance training was high; therefore, no report pooled effect estimates.
«Kodama S, Tanaka S, Saito K, ym. Effect of aerobic...»7 Risk of bias from restricted search and insufficient quality-based analyses

Results

Table 3. Training and total cholesterol.
Reference Lipid Number of studies and number of patients (I/C) Duration and frequency of training Absolute number of events (%) I Absolute number of events (%) C Relative effect (95% CI)
Level of evidence: moderate
The quality of evidence is downgraded due to study limitations, inconsistency, imprecision.
I=intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval; TC=total cholesterol; SMD= standardized mean difference; VMD=weighted mean difference; *p-value<0.05/significant
Aerobic training
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 TC 26
355/357
3 sessions/week, moderate + vigorous intensity N/A N/A SMD −0.24 (−0.39 to −0.08)*
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 TC 12
184/183
3 sessions/week, moderate intensity N/A N/A SMD −0.23 (−0.43 to −0.02)*
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 TC 12
142/147
3 sessions/week, vigorous intensity N/A N/A SMD −0.35(−0.64 to −0.07)*
Resistance training
«Kelley GA, Kelley KS. Impact of progressive resist...»2 TC 30 2–3 sessions/week, intensity 50–87% of 1RM, number of exercises 3–16, sets 1–5, progressive intensity N/A N/A −5.5 mg/dL (−9.4 to −1.6)*
Aerobic and resistance training
«Lin X, Zhang X, Guo J, ym. Effects of Exercise Tra...»3 TC 68
1754/ 1604
N/A N/A WMD 1.16 mg/dL (-9.28 to 11.99)
«Masmoum MD, Khan S, Usmani WA, ym. The Effectivene...»4 TC 12
8533/19532
N/A N/A −0.10 mg/dL (−1.33 to 1.14)
Table 4. Training and LDL.
Reference Lipid Number of studies and number of patients (I/C) Duration and frequency of training Absolute number of events (%) I Absolute number of events (%) C Relative effect (95% CI)
Level of evidence: moderate
The quality of evidence is downgraded due to study limitations, inconsistency, imprecision.
LDL=low-density lipoprotein; I=intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval; ACSM= American College of Sports Medicine; MD=mean difference; SMD=standardized mean difference; VMD=weighted mean difference; *p-value<0.05/significant
Aerobic training
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 LDL 22
292/298
3 sessions/week N/A N/A SMD −0.42 (−0.65 to −0.18)*
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 LDL 9
137/140
3 sessions/week, moderate intensity N/A N/A SMD −0.49 (−0.76 to −0.23)*
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 LDL 11
126/131
3 sessions/week, vigorous intensity N/A SMD -0.54 (−0.89 to −0.19)*
Resistance training
«Kelley GA, Kelley KS. Impact of progressive resist...»2 LDL 23 2–3 sessions/week, intensity 50–87% of 1RM, number of exercises 3–16, sets 1–5, progressive intensity N/A N/A −6.1 mg/dL (−11.2 to −1.0)*
«de Oude KI, Elbers RG, Gerger H, ym. The effect of...»5 LDL 11
137/137
2–4 sessions/week (ACSM requirement at minimum), low intensity N/A N/A MD −0.10 mmol/L (−0.16 to −0.04)
«de Oude KI, Elbers RG, Gerger H, ym. The effect of...»5 LDL 4
81/75
2–4 sessions/week (ACSM requirement at minimum), progressive intensity N/A N/A MD −0.16 mmol/L (−0.19 to −0.13)
Aerobic and resistance training
«Lin X, Zhang X, Guo J, ym. Effects of Exercise Tra...»3 LDL 59
1681/1525
N/A N/A WMD 3.87 mg/dL (-8.12 to 0.39)
Table 5. Training and HDL.
Reference Lipid Number of studies and number of patients (I/C) Duration and frequency of training Absolute number of events (%) I Absolute number of events (%) C Relative effect (95% CI)
Level of evidence: moderate
The quality of evidence is downgraded due to study limitations, inconsistency.
HDL=high-density lipoprotein; I=intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval; SMD= standardized mean difference; MD=mean difference; VMD=weighted mean difference;*p-value<0.05/significant
Aerobic training
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 HDL 26
355/357
3 sessions/week, moderate + vigorous intensity N/A N/A SMD 0.33 (0.11 to 0.55)*
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 HDL 12
184/183
3 sessions/week, moderate intensity N/A N/A SMD 0.36 (0.03 to 0.68)*
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 HDL 12
142/147
3 sessions/week, vigorous intensity N/A N/A SMD 0.25 (−0.10 to 0.59)
«Liang L, Peng F, Wang L, ym. Effects of exercise o...»6 HDL 21
780/ 593
1-6 sessions/week N/A N/A SMD 0.27 (0.07 to 0.48)*
«Kodama S, Tanaka S, Saito K, ym. Effect of aerobic...»7 HDL 25
total 1404
3.7 sessions/week, session duration 40.5 minutes, intensity ~65% VO2max N/A N/A MD 2.53 mg/dL (1.36 to 3.70)*
Resistance training
«Kelley GA, Kelley KS. Impact of progressive resist...»2
HDL 28 2–3 sessions/week, intensity 50–87% of 1RM, number of exercises 3–16, sets 1–5, progressive intensity N/A N/A 0.7 mg/dL (−1.2 to 2.6)
Aerobic and resistance training
«Lin X, Zhang X, Guo J, ym. Effects of Exercise Tra...»3 HDL 74
1976/1800
N/A N/A WMD 2.32 mg/dL (1.16 to 3.87)*
All exercise forms
«Liang L, Peng F, Wang L, ym. Effects of exercise o...»6 HDL 42
1327/ 1315
1-6 session/week N/A N/A SMD 0.22 (0.09 to 0.35)*
Table 6. Training and TG.
Reference Lipid Number of studies and number of patients (I/C) Duration and frequency of training Absolute number of events (%) I Absolute number of events (%) C Relative effect (95% CI)
Level of evidence: moderate
The quality of evidence is downgraded due to study limitations, imprecision.
TG=triglyceride; I=intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval; SMD=standardized mean difference; VMD=weighted mean difference; *p-value<0.05/significant
Aerobic training
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 TG 27
380/374
3 sessions/week, moderate + vigorous intensity N/A N/A SMD −0.54 (−0.75 to −0.33)*
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 TG 12
188/183
3 sessions/week, moderate intensity N/A N/A SMD −0.48 (−0.69 to −0.27) *
«Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exer...»1 TG 13
163/164
3 sessions/week, vigorous-Intensity N/A N/A SMD −0.66(−1.06 to −0.25)*
Resistance training
«Liang L, Peng F, Wang L, ym. Effects of exercise o...»6 TG 26 2–3 sessions/week, intensity 50–87% of 1RM, number of exercises 3–16, sets 1–5, progressive intensity −8.1 mg/dL (−14.5 to −1.8)*
Aerobic and resistance training
«Lin X, Zhang X, Guo J, ym. Effects of Exercise Tra...»3 TG 66
1851/1703
N/A N/A WMD -5.31 mg/dL (-10.63 to -0.89)*

References

  1. Chen Z, Zhou R, Liu X, ym. Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Blood Lipids in People with Overweight or Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Life (Basel) 2025;15(2): «PMID: 40003575»PubMed
  2. Kelley GA, Kelley KS. Impact of progressive resistance training on lipids and lipoproteins in adults: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Prev Med 2009;48(1):9-19 «PMID: 19013187»PubMed
  3. Lin X, Zhang X, Guo J, ym. Effects of Exercise Training on Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. J Am Heart Assoc 2015;4(7): «PMID: 26116691»PubMed
  4. Masmoum MD, Khan S, Usmani WA, ym. The Effectiveness of Exercise in Reducing Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Cureus 2024;16(9):e68928 «PMID: 39381478»PubMed
  5. de Oude KI, Elbers RG, Gerger H, ym. The effect of different resistance exercise training intensities on cardiovascular risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Heart J Open 2025;5(5):oeaf093 «PMID: 40980719»PubMed
  6. Liang L, Peng F, Wang L, ym. Effects of exercise on high-density lipoprotein levels in middle-aged and older individuals: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicine (Baltimore) 2025;104(6):e41493 «PMID: 39928779»PubMed
  7. Kodama S, Tanaka S, Saito K, ym. Effect of aerobic exercise training on serum levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol: a meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med 2007;167(10):999-1008 «PMID: 17533202»PubMed