the effect of primary swimming on the hormonal anabolic-catabolic balance and serum leptin in obese children and adolescents

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of primary swimming on the hormonal anabolic-catabolic balance and serum leptin in obese children and adolescents. sixty obese subjects (children and adolescents) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: 1) primary swimming training (children); 2) control (children); 3) primary swimming training (adolescents); and 4) control (adolescents) groups. our experimental subjects performed a primary swimming training for 8 weeks, 3 sessions per week and 60 minutes per session. before and after training period, blood samples, anthropometric and body composition measurements were taken in fasting state from all subjects. the findings showed that the primary swimming training prevents significant increase of serum leptin and insulin hormone in adolescents. furthermore, primary swimming training caused a significant decrease in body fat percent, body fat mass and body mass index, a significant increase of vo2max in children and adolescents, a significant decrease in cortisol hormone as well as a significant increase in fat free mass in adolescents (p<0.05). there was a positive and significant correlation between levels of leptin changes and body fat percent and fat mass after primary swimming training (p<0.05). in addition, there was a negative and significant correlation between levels of leptin hormone changes and fat free mass after primary swimming training (p<0.05). therefore, it can be concluded that eight weeks of primary swimming training improves serum leptin and some of the anthropometric, hormonal and metabolic parameters.