{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T09:10:38Z","timestamp":1777713038744,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Journal of Sports Science and Medicine","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"am","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["jsportscimed"],"abstract":"<p>This study aimed to investigate the effects of 10-week interventions of polarized training (POL), high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and threshold training (THR) on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and cardiometabolic risk factors in untrained, healthy, young obese females. A total of 40 obese, untrained females volunteered to participate in the study and were randomly allocated to four equal groups: POL, HIIT, THR, and a control (CON) group. Training intensity was prescribed relative to ventilatory thresholds (VTs) and categorized into three zones: Zone 1 (Z1; 95% VT<sub>1<\/sub>), Zone 2 (Z2; 50% to 95% VT<sub>2<\/sub>), and Zone 3 (Z3; 90% VO<sub>2max<\/sub>). All the training groups performed similar training loads (66% to 93% heart rate max) and the weekly intensity distribution was 75% Z1 and 25% Z3 for POL, 100% Z3 for HIIT, and 50% Z1 and 50% Z2 for THR. CRF, glycemic and lipid profiles, body composition, and cardiovascular variables were assessed before and after the 10-week intervention. After the intervention, total body mass, fat mass, heart rate, fasting glucose, cholesterol, LDL and triglyceride decreased in all exercised-groups (time effect: p &lt; 0.001). In addition, the VO<sub>2max<\/sub>, VT<sub>1<\/sub>, VT<sub>2<\/sub>, Q<sub>max<\/sub> and SV<sub>max<\/sub> increased in all exercised-groups (time effect: p &lt; 0.001) following the 10-week intervention period. Moreover, the POL group showed more adaptive responses than the HIIT and THR training modalities for the changes in the CRF, glycemic and lipid profiles, body composition, and HR (interaction effect: p \u2264 0.002) after the 10-week training. In summary, aerobic training models characterized by different intensity distributions are effective in improving CRF, cardiometabolic risk factors, and body composition. However, compared with HIIT and THR, POL elicited superior adaptations across a broader range of CRF and cardiometabolic variables. Collectively, these findings indicate that polarized volume training represents an effective non-pharmacological strategy for simultaneously enhancing CRF and reducing cardiometabolic risk in young, untrained women with obesity.<\/p><\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.52082\/jssm.2026.395","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T10:07:10Z","timestamp":1777457230000},"page":"395-404","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Adaptive Responses of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors to Polarized Versus Other Types of Training Intensity Distribution in Obese Untrained Females"],"prefix":"10.52082","author":[{"given":"Chaoyu","family":"Zhou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yusong","family":"Teng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yinan","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"29163","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref0","unstructured":"Ahmadizad, S., Haghighi, A. H., Hamedinia, M. R. (2007) Effects of resistance versus endurance training on serum adiponectin and insulin resistance index. European Journal of Endocrinology 157(5), 625-631."},{"key":"ref1","unstructured":"Gormley, S. E., Swain, D. P., High, R., Spina, R. J., Dowling, E. A., Kotipalli, U. S., Gandrakota, R. (2008) Effect of intensity of aerobic training on VO2max. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 40(7), 1336-1343."},{"key":"ref2","unstructured":"Hopkins, W. G., Marshall, S. W., Batterham, A. M., Hanin, J. (2009) Progressive statistics for studies in sports medicine and exercise science. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 41(1), 3-13."},{"key":"ref3","unstructured":"Hu, F. B., Willett, W. C., Li, T., Stampfer, M. J., Colditz, G. A., Manson, J. E. (2004) Adiposity as compared with physical activity in predicting mortality among women. New England Journal of Medicine 351(26), 2694-2703."},{"key":"ref4","unstructured":"Kanter, R., Caballero, B. (2012) Global gender disparities in obesity: A review. Advances in Nutrition 3(4), 491-498."},{"key":"ref5","unstructured":"Li, M., Sheykhlouvand, M. (2025) Effects of combined versus single supplementation of creatine, beta-alanine, and L-citrulline during short sprint interval training on basketball players’ performance: A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 20(4), 559-567."},{"key":"ref6","unstructured":"Muñoz, I., Seiler, S., Bautista, J., España, J., Larumbe, E., Esteve-Lanao, J. (2014) Does polarized training improve performance in recreational runners? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 9(2), 265-272."},{"key":"ref7","unstructured":"Myers, J., McAuley, P., Lavie, C. J., Després, J. P., Arena, R., Kokkinos, P. (2015) Physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness as major markers of cardiovascular risk: Their independent and interwoven importance to health status. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases 57(4), 306-314."},{"key":"ref8","unstructured":"Ní Chéilleachair, N. J., Harrison, A. J., Warrington, G. D. (2017) HIIT enhances endurance performance and aerobic characteristics more than high-volume training in trained rowers. Journal of Sports Sciences 35(11), 1052-1058."},{"key":"ref9","unstructured":"Ning, C., Sheykhlouvand, M. (2025) Selected immunoendocrine and physiological performance adaptations to different volume of upper-body plyometric training in national-level male volleyball players. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 20(3), 363-371."},{"key":"ref10","unstructured":"Pedersen, B. K., Saltin, B. (2015) Exercise as medicine: Evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in 26 different chronic diseases. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 25(S3), 1-72."},{"key":"ref11","unstructured":"Alkhatib, A., Hsieh, M. J., Kuo, C. H., Hou, C. W. (2020) Caffeine optimizes HIIT benefits on obesity-associated metabolic adversity in women. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 52(8), 1793-1800."},{"key":"ref12","unstructured":"Pérez, A., Ramos-Campo, D. J., Freitas, T. T., Rubio-Arias, J. Á., Marín-Cascales, E., Alcaraz, P. E. (2018) Effect of two different intensity distribution training programmes on aerobic and body composition variables in ultra-endurance runners. European Journal of Sport Science 19(5), 636-644."},{"key":"ref13","unstructured":"Rao, P., Belanger, M. J., Robbins, J. M. (2022) Exercise, physical activity, and cardiometabolic health: Insights into the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic diseases. Cardiology in Review 30(4), 167-178."},{"key":"ref14","unstructured":"Rosenblat, M. A., Perrotta, A. S., Vicenzino, B. (2019) Polarized vs. threshold training intensity distribution on endurance sport performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 33(12), 3491-3500."},{"key":"ref15","unstructured":"Stöggl, T., Sperlich, B. (2014) Polarized training has greater impact on key endurance variables than threshold, high-intensity, or high-volume training. Frontiers in Physiology 5, 33."},{"key":"ref16","unstructured":"Tao, T., Zhang, N., Yu, D., Sheykhlouvand, M. (2024) Physiological and performance adaptations to varying rest distributions during short sprint interval training trials in female volleyball players: A comparative analysis of interindividual variability. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 19(10), 1048-1057."},{"key":"ref17","unstructured":"Treff, G., Winkert, K., Sareban, M., Steinacker, J. M., Becker, M., Sperlich, B. (2017) Eleven-week preparation involving polarized intensity distribution is not superior to pyramidal distribution in national elite rowers. Frontiers in Physiology 8, 515."},{"key":"ref18","unstructured":"Tschakert, G., Hofmann, P. (2013) High-intensity intermittent exercise: Methodological and physiological aspects. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 8(6), 600-610."},{"key":"ref19","unstructured":"Zapata-Lamana, R., Henríquez-Olguín, C., Burgos, C., Meneses-Valdés, R., Cigarroa, I., Soto, C., Cerda-Kohler, H. (2018) Effects of polarized training on cardiometabolic risk factors in young overweight and obese women: A randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Physiology 9, 1287."},{"key":"ref20","unstructured":"Arazi, H., Asadi, A., Khalkhali, F., Boullosa, D., Hackney, A. C., Granacher, U., Zouhal, H. (2020) Association between the acute to chronic workload ratio and injury occurrence in young male team soccer players: A preliminary study. Frontiers in Physiology 11, 608."},{"key":"ref21","unstructured":"Boutari, C., Mantzoros, C. S. (2022) A 2022 update on the epidemiology of obesity and a call to action: As its twin COVID-19 pandemic appears to be receding, the obesity and dysmetabolism pandemic continues to rage on. Metabolism 133, 155217."},{"key":"ref22","unstructured":"Chiang, T. L., Chen, C., Lin, Y. C., Chan, S. H., Wu, H. J. (2023) Effect of polarized training on cardiorespiratory fitness of untrained healthy young adults: A randomized controlled trial with equal training impulse. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine 22(2), 263-272."},{"key":"ref23","unstructured":"Cornelissen, V. A., Fagard, R. H. (2005) Effects of endurance training on blood pressure, blood pressure-regulating mechanisms, and cardiovascular risk factors. Hypertension 46(4), 667-675."},{"key":"ref24","unstructured":"Cox, C. E. (2017) Role of physical activity for weight loss and weight maintenance. Diabetes Spectrum 30(3), 157-160."},{"key":"ref25","unstructured":"Festa, L., Tarperi, C., Skroce, K., La Torre, A., Schena, F. (2020) Effects of different training intensity distribution in recreational runners. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living 1, 70."},{"key":"ref26","unstructured":"Gharaat, M., Karami, S., Sheykhlouvand, M., Rajabi, H. (2025) Regulation of angiogenic genes and endothelial progenitor cells following resistance training in elderly men. Sport Sciences for Health 21, 853-865."}],"container-title":["Journal of Sports Science and Medicine"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T10:07:11Z","timestamp":1777457231000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.jssm.org\/jssm-25-395.xml-Fulltext"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]]},"references-count":27,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.52082\/jssm.2026.395","archive":["Internet Archive"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["1303-2968"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1303-2968","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]]}}}