comparison of the effect of maximal and submaximal aerobic physical activity on saliva enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant indices in middle-age women

Background & objective: some studies have demonstrated that aerobic exercise can reinforce antioxidant defensive system. to this end, the present study aimed to compare the effect of maximal and submaximal aerobic physical activity on saliva enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant indices in middle-aged women. materials & methods: in this quasi-experimental study, 24 women (35-45 years, weight: 67.41±5.03, height: 161.83±2.98 and bmi: 25.74±2.01) were selected purposefully and voluntarily who were randomly categorized into two groups, maximal aerobic physical activity (mapa) and submaximal physical activity (sapa) (n=12/group). sapa were done with 50 to 70 percentage of heart rate reserve for 3 sessions/week for 6 weeks. to do mapa, bruce protocol (seven stages for 3 minutes) was applied. it started with 10% incline and 1.7 miles/hour speed and continued with 2% increase for every 3 minutes until exhaustion, 3 sessions/week for 6 weeks. required saliva samples were gathered before the first session and 24 hours after the last session of exercise to be applied to evaluate catalase, superoxide dismutase, malondialdehyde enzyme, and total antioxidant capacity. data were analyzed using an independent t-test (p≤ 0.05). results: research results represented a significant difference in saliva enzyme indices for mapa and sapa groups: catalase (pcat= 0.003), malondialdehyde (pmda=0.001), and total antioxidant capacity (ptac= 0.04). mapa group showed higher average. in addition, the results indicated no significant difference in dismutase superoxide enzyme levels (psod=0.88) in mapa and sapa groups. conclusion: according to the reported results, it may be concluded that due to its ability to increase antioxidant enzyme secretion, mapa is applied to cope with oxidative stress.