Abstract: BACKGROUND: Overweight and obese college students experience a decline in cardiorespiratory endurance, and the long-term tendency may lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Studies have confirmed that blood flow restriction training can significantly improve muscle morphology and function under the same load, enhance cardiorespiratory endurance, and optimize cardiovascular function.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of 12-week blood flow restriction training combined with aerobic exercise on cardiorespiratory endurance and cardiovascular function in overweight and obese college students.
METHODS: A total of 64 overweight and obese college students were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group (32 participants in each group). The experimental group participated in blood flow restriction training combined with aerobic exercise, with a 12-week low-intensity blood flow-restricted aerobic exercise program, 3 times per week, 60 minutes each session. The control group underwent regular aerobic exercise during the same period. Before and after the exercise intervention, body composition (body mass index, body fat percentage, and lean body mass), cardiovascular function (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, ankle-brachial index, pulse wave velocity, stroke volume, and left ventricular ejection fraction), and cardiorespiratory endurance (vital capacity, oxygen pulse, maximal oxygen uptake, metabolic equivalents, rating of perceived exertion, and respiratory quotient) were measured.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After 12 weeks of exercise intervention, compared with the control group, the experimental group showed significant changes in body composition, with a 1.51% decrease in body fat percentage (P < 0.05) and a 0.93 kg increase in lean body mass (P < 0.05); resting heart rate decreased by 3.05 beats/min (P < 0.05), systolic blood pressure decreased by 6.51 mmHg (P < 0.05), diastolic blood pressure decreased by 2.16 mmHg (P < 0.05), ankle-brachial index decreased by 0.12 units (P < 0.05), and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity decreased by 64.93 m/s (P < 0.05); stroke volume increased by 6.86 mL 
(P < 0.05), and left ventricular ejection fraction increased by 5.17% (P < 0.05); cardiorespiratory endurance improved, with vital capacity increasing by 
335.94 mL (P < 0.05), VO2max increasing by 4.67 mL/kg/min (P < 0.05), oxygen pulse increasing by 1.73 mL/b (P < 0.05), and metabolic equivalents increasing by 1.34 units (P < 0.05). These findings indicate that blood flow-restricted aerobic exercise can effectively improve cardiorespiratory endurance and cardiovascular function in overweight and obese college students without imposing additional cardiac burden, providing a low-risk and high-efficiency exercise modality for improving cardiorespiratory endurance and cardiovascular function in this population.

Key words: blood flow restriction training, aerobic exercise, obesity, college students, cardiorespiratory endurance