Title: Resistance training alters body composition in middle-aged women depending on
menopause - A 20-week control trial
Version: 3 Date: 14 Jun 2023
Reviewer's report:
Specific Comments:
1. Methods
1.1. 128 line: Why are T0 and T1 separated?  Why is T1 necessary for this study? This could be
understood to mean that the exercise experiment continued into the 10-week period before the
exercise intervention (T0). This needs further explanation.
1.2. 142 line: When was the blood sample taken? For eumenorrheic women, there are hormones
fluctuations during the menstrual cycle. It is necessary to explain.
1.3. 157 line: What do you mean by the three anatomical sites on the right side? Do you mean
the three muscles in the right thigh? It is necessary to explain.
1.4. 158 line: Why did you specify the measurement site as a greater trochanter?
1.5. 160 line: When measuring muscle thickness, the vastus lateralis was measured supine
position and the rectus femoris was measured lying on the left side. Is there a reason for the
different body positions?
1.6. 165 line: When the text says lay on their abdomen, is it referring to the prone position? In
the next sentence below, authors wrote prone. We need to unify the words.
1.7. 172 line: The author wrote a subtopic as Strength. Are you referring to a maximum strength
test?
1.8. 175 line: The 5-second handgrip test seems to imply a maximum strength measurement.
How long was the rest time between measurements?
1.9. 179 line: The authors explained that the height of the box was individually adjusted for each
subject. On what basis was it individualized?
1.10. 190 line: Basically, it is needed to explain loading and unloading. And why is it needed a
loading and unloading program for low and moderate intensity training? please explain.
1.11. 196 and 198: Do cable row and lat pull-down exercises count as free weights?
1.12. 208 line: I need a better explanation of "tempo" in table 1. And what does the @ sign mean?
1.13. 214 line: The authors provided the participants with a carbohydrate-protein post-training
meal to maximize muscle hypertrophy by stimulating protein synthesis. However, they provided
three different types of food with different proportions of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Why
did they provide three different types of food? Also, it is generally accepted that protein intake
for muscle hypertrophy should be a minimum of 0.8 grams and a maximum of 2 grams per
kilogram of body weight. In this regard, did the authors match the amount of protein provided
to the participants' body weight? Is the main purpose of the paper to look at muscle hypertrophy
through training variety or optimal nutrition?
1.14. If the aim is to study the training effects of nutrition as well, then in this regard, we believe
that the participants' meals and the food provided after training should have been controlled for
10 weeks.
2. Results
2.1. 252 line: The author needs to simplify the presentation of Table 2. The authors descripted
T1 and T2 phase for hormone profile, which have no results. please modify it.
2.2. 307 line: The author needs to explain more about the statistical * and #. Also, is the
significant difference for T0 and T1 a repeated testing effect? More explanation is needed.
3. Discussion
3.1. 312 line: Is “the 20-week training program” right? and more detailed explanation of the
main finding.
3.2. 320 line: Please check out the references.
3.3. 322 line: Is the study's experimental group elderly?
3.4. 352 line: Strength was only significantly increased in the lower body. If you want to explain
the increase in 1RM in the upper body, write more about the improvement in 1RM.