This research further strengthens the evidence for the safety and efficacy of prescribing resistance and aerobic exercise to HIV-infected men. No adverse events were reported, and there was a very low attrition rate. The only circulating hormone or cytokine we found in abnormal levels was IL-1-β, which was more than twice as high as the upper limit of the normal range. Aside from IL-1-β, our findings of “normal”circulatinglevelsofhormonesandcytokinesinour population may explain our inability to detect changes in all these variables, except cortisol. It may be that those HIV-infected persons experiencing chronic low-grade inflam-mation may respond differently to the prescribed exercise intervention. Even in healthy populations, it is common to not detect changes in these variables, thus our HIV-infected population may be responding to exercise training the same as uninfected persons. Also, these data suggest that the benefits of exercise training in HIV-infected men using ART may be attributable to the transient decrease in resting CORT, the accumulation of hormone and cytokine changes following individual exercise sessions, or to factors yet to be investigated. Additionally, these results indicate that low-volume moderate-intensity exercise training, consistent with ACSM guidelines, is sufficient to produce beneficial physiological adaptations and the resulting performance improvements (increase in upper and lower body strength) in HIV-infected men receiving ART. Further, this study is the first to report differential effects of exercise training based on preintervention body composition. Both the +20 and −20 groups realized the health benefits of increasing lean
tissue mass, without gaining fat mass, while the +20 group also experienced the health benefit of losing trunk fat. Taken together, these results provide evidence for the effective-ness of combined moderate-intensity aerobic and resistance exercise training at decreasing the risk for cardiometabolic diseases and increasing lean tissue mass; thus, strongly suggesting its inclusion in the standardized treatment plan of those infected with HIV-1.