TY - JOUR
T1 - Recreational Soccer, Body Composition and Cardiometabolic Health
T2 - A Training-Intervention Study in Healthy Adolescents
AU - Hadjicharalambous, Marios
AU - Zaras, Nikolaos
AU - Apostolidis, Andreas
AU - Tsofliou, Fotini
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the coaching teams’ members for their excellent collaboration and support throughout the study period. The excellent cooperation of the participants and their parents is strongly appreciated.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by authors, all rights reserved.
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - Recreational soccer (RS) is widely used for adolescents as a physical activity method. However, its impact on physical fitness, body composition and metabolic health in adolescents has not been extensively examined yet. The purpose of the present study was to examine the contribution of changes in body fatness and aerobic capacity to modifications in circulating blood lipids profile, following 8-weeks of RS in healthy youth. Fifty-three healthy male adolescents were separated in three groups: one performed RS (3 times x 60 min/week); the other two were served as control groups [soccer-specific training (SST) one and inactive one]. Physical fitness, body composition and blood lipids and glucose responses were evaluated before and after 8-weeks of exercise intervention. Post-intervention body weight and body fat percentage (BF%) were lowered, while physical fitness was improved (p < 0.05) in SST group only. High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was higher (n2 =.378) and total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C ratio was lower (n2 =.195) in the SST group relative to RS and inactive groups (p < 0.05). In conclusion, although RS may improve aerobic capacity, relative to inactive control group, it does not influence body fatness and cardiometabolic health in adolescents. Consequently, RS may not secure health benefit during the crucial transition period from adolescence to adulthood.
AB - Recreational soccer (RS) is widely used for adolescents as a physical activity method. However, its impact on physical fitness, body composition and metabolic health in adolescents has not been extensively examined yet. The purpose of the present study was to examine the contribution of changes in body fatness and aerobic capacity to modifications in circulating blood lipids profile, following 8-weeks of RS in healthy youth. Fifty-three healthy male adolescents were separated in three groups: one performed RS (3 times x 60 min/week); the other two were served as control groups [soccer-specific training (SST) one and inactive one]. Physical fitness, body composition and blood lipids and glucose responses were evaluated before and after 8-weeks of exercise intervention. Post-intervention body weight and body fat percentage (BF%) were lowered, while physical fitness was improved (p < 0.05) in SST group only. High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was higher (n2 =.378) and total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C ratio was lower (n2 =.195) in the SST group relative to RS and inactive groups (p < 0.05). In conclusion, although RS may improve aerobic capacity, relative to inactive control group, it does not influence body fatness and cardiometabolic health in adolescents. Consequently, RS may not secure health benefit during the crucial transition period from adolescence to adulthood.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Blood Metabolites
KW - Body Composition
KW - Health
KW - Physical Fitness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134158757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.13189/saj.2022.100320
DO - 10.13189/saj.2022.100320
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134158757
SN - 2381-4381
VL - 10
SP - 524
EP - 533
JO - International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences
JF - International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences
IS - 3
ER -