The Effects of Concurrent Training on the Body Composition, Quality of Life, and Sleep Quality of Postmenopausal Women with Breast Cancer

Background: Concurrent training is more effective in developing fitness indicators than doing endurance and resistance training separately. However, there has been limited research to evaluate the effects of this type of exercise training on improvement of body composition and quality of life indicators in postmenopausal women with cancer. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the effects of eight-week of concurrent training on body composition, quality of life, and sleep quality in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Methods: This studywas conductedon42womenwith breast cancerwhowere selected randomly and divided into exercise training and control groups. The training group followed eight-week of resistance training (2 - 3 sets, 10 - 18 repetitions, and 50% - 70% 1RM) and aerobic training (50% - 70% maximum heart rate, 12 - 14 Borg scale, and 20 - 40 minutes). Anthropometric characteristics were measured based on body composition (ZEUS 9.9), the sleep quality was measured by the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), and the quality of life was measured by the McGill quality of life (MQOL) questionnaire. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA has been used for McGill’s analysis of variance (P < 0.05). Results: The results showed a significant decrease in sleep quality score, weight, fat percentage, BMI, and waist circumference in the training group (P < 0.05), as well as an increase in quality of life index in the training group (P < 0.05). However, no significant changes were observed in the Waist-hip ratio (WHR) values of the training group compared with the control group (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Although the changes inWHR indexwerenot significant after eightweeksof concurrent training, this typeof training program could be considered as a beneficial way for improving body composition, quality of life, and sleep quality in patients with breast cancer.