Effects of Isolated and Combined Resistance Training and Sand Running, Detraining, and Retraining on Selected Physical, Physiological, And Biochemical Variables among University Women Students in Kerala

Abstract

The exercises have a capacity to confer training adaptations. The rate at which those adaptations are lost and regained has direct implications for how physical education programmes are designed, particularly for populations with interrupted activity patterns. This study examined the effects of isolated and combined resistance training and sand running, a structured detraining period, and subsequent retraining on physical, physiological, and biochemical criterion variables among university women students in Kerala, India. Sixty undergraduate women (age range 18–22 years, M = 19.8, SD = 1.2) enrolled in Arts and Science Colleges of Palakkad district were randomly assigned to four groups: a Resistance Training group (RT; n = 15), a Sand Running group (SR; n = 15), a Combined Resistance Training and Sand Running group (COMB; n = 15), and a Control group (CON; n = 15). Training continued three days per week for twelve weeks. A subsequent detraining phase of 40 days was monitored at 10-day intervals (four cessation points), followed by 4 weeks of retraining. Criterion variables were leg strength, back strength, elastic power (bunny hops), breath-holding time, resting pulse rate, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), and total protein. Data were analysed using a 4 × 7 factorial ANOVA with repeated measures on the time factor. Scheffé's post hoc test was applied wherever significant interactions were detected. All three trained groups demonstrated significant improvements across physical, physiological, and biochemical variables after the twelve-week intervention (p < .05), with the COMB group recording the largest effect sizes. Statistically, it was evident that Detraining produced non-significant losses at cessations one and two, but significant deterioration at cessations three and four. Four weeks of retraining restored all variables to, or above, post-training values in all three trained groups. These findings confirm the dominance of a combined training modality. The findings also support the physiological concept of muscle memory in exercise prescription for young women.