The effect of 12 weeks of Pilates training with Spirulina supplementation on serum adropin levels in inactive obese women

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC 4.0) license

Author

Department of Sport Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Maragheh University, Maragheh, Iran.

Abstract

Aim: Adropin is a peptide hormone that plays an important role in energy homeostasis and has recently received attention in regulating adipose tissue metabolism due to its negative association with obesity and insulin resistance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of 12 weeks of Pilates training with Spirulina supplementation on serum Adropin levels in inactive obese women.
 Method: The present study was a quasi-experimental and applied study, conducted with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. In this way, 60 inactive obese women were selected through simple random sampling and divided into four groups of 15 people, including the control group, the Pilates + Spirulina exercise group, the exercise group, and the Spirulina group. The Pilates exercise intervention (65 to 75% of maximum heart rate) was performed for 12 weeks and three sessions per week. Spirulina supplement (in the form of 500 mg capsules) was consumed twice daily after breakfast and evening for 12 weeks. Blood samples were taken before and 48 hours after the last exercise session in a 12-hour fasting state to determine serum Adropin concentration. The data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance at a significance level of P<0.05
Results: Intra-group results showed that serum Adropin levels increased significantly in the training (P=0.0001), supplement (P=0.001) and training + spirulina (P=0.0002) groups. Body BMI decreased significantly in the training (P=0.001), spirulina supplement (P=0.001) and training + spirulina (P=0.0002) groups. Significant between-group changes were observed in Adropin (P=0.0002), BMI (P=0.0001). The combined effect of exercise and spirulina supplementation resulted in a significant increase in Adropin (P=0.0002) and a significant decrease in BMI (P=0.0001).
Conclusion: The combination of Pilates training and Spirulina supplementation appears to be associated with increased serum Adropin levels and decreased body BMI and weight in inactive obese women.

Highlights

Performing Pilates exercises increases serum Adropin levels in inactive obese individuals.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 21 October 2025
  • Revise Date: 12 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 18 May 2026
  • First Publish Date: 18 May 2026

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