Background: Obesity, insulin resistance and myostatin levels are known to be risk factors for breast cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of nonlinear resistance training on serum myostatin levels and insulin resistance in women with breast cancer.

Methods: In the present quasi experimental study, 20 women with breast cancer were selected by random sampling from patients referred to Imam Hassan Chemotherapy Center Dezful, Iran and randomly selected in the group of resistance training with non-linear training and control groups. Exercise intervention included 12 weeks of resistance training, 3 sessions per week and each training session including training of different muscle groups with 40%-90% maximum repetition was performed. Fasting blood sampling was performed 48 hours before and after the intervention period. Dependent t-test and analysis of covariance were used for statistical analysis (P ≤ 0.05).

Results: After training period, there was a significant decrease was founded in body fat percentage (P=0.038), serum myostatin level (P=0.023), fasting insulin (P<0.001) and insulin resistance (P<0.001) in the training group compared to the control group, but there was no significant difference was observed in the variables of weight (P=0.603), body mass index (P=0.965) and fasting glucose (P=0.410).

Conclusion: According to the results of resistance training with improving body composition and insulin resistance has a positive role in reducing the complications associated with breast cancer and these changes are probably related to the metabolic effects of myostatin, a myocene associated with skeletal muscle growth is created.

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