The effect of exercise in private fitness centres on people general physical conditioning

Introduction

Although the positive outcomes resulting from physical activity have been demonstrated in the population at large, people general physical conditioning has rarely been an element in private fitness centre plans. This study examined the effect of exercise on the general physical conditioning of people who exercise in private fitness centres.

Methods

60 healthy people (30 men and 30 women), 20-30 years old, who did not exercise regularly, were assigned at 12 weeks training programme (20 minutes of aerobic following of 30 minutes strength and flexibility training), 2- 4 times a week. We examined twice, at the beginning and at the end of the programme, the cardiovascular endurance employing the Abstrand- Rhyming protocol, the musculoskeletal strength and endurance using the bench press - endurance and the abdominal crunches test, the flexibility employing the sit and reach test and the total body fat using the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis- BIA.

Results

Results indicate that flexibility and strength (for both men and women) and women’s cardiovascular endurance significantly increased Moreover, the total body fat significantly decreased for both groups. On the contrary there was no significant differences in cardiovascular endurance of men according to statistical data.

Discussion/Conclusion

Data indicates that people, who took exercise in private fitness centers, improved most parameters of general physical conditioning. The non-improvement of men’s cardiovascular endurance is probably due to the fact that they have given more emphasis to the part of muscular empowerment and they did not execute in detail the aerobic part of the programme. A reason that dictated such behaviour could be men’s wish to resemble the muscular man’s body norm, so much exhibited by the media.

References

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