Plain language summary
Physical activity helps to prevent and manage chronic disease, particularly in the aging population. Existing research shows physical activity programmes improve physical capacity and body composition, however participants report difficulty maintaining their training habits once the intervention is finished. The aim of this study was to produce a pragmatic, real-life setup to compare the health effects of team-sport activities with traditional fitness training among men with lifestyle disease in the community health centre context. This study took place over two years. During the first year, 32 men participated in the traditional fitness training to obtain baseline effects. For the second year, all training sessions were replaced with team-sport training and 36 men participated. This study found that team-sport activities produced comparable effects on various health parameters to the traditional fitness-training programme. Based on these results, the authors conclude that team sport activities are a worthy alternative to fitness training in community health centres.
Abstract
This study compares the effects of team-sport training, for sedentary men with lifestyle diseases, with fitness training in a pragmatic set-up in a community health centre (CHC). Thirty-two men in the fitness group (FiG) and 36 men in the team-sport group (TsG) completed the training and trained for 60-90 min, two times/week for 12-16 weeks. In FiG and TsG, mean heart rate (HR) during training was 73.2% and 74.5% of HRmax, respectively. Percentage of training time above 90%HRmax was 6 ± 9% and 10 ± 15% and the percentage of participants who spent > 10% of total training time with HR > 90%HRmax was 20% and 41%, in FiG and TsG, respectively. In FiG, total fat mass was reduced by 3.5% (P < 0.01), while performance in the 6 min walking test (6MWT) increased by 11% (P < 0.001). In TsG, total fat mass was reduced by 2.2% (P < 0.01), while 6MWT performance improved by 5% (P < 0.05). Between-group differences were observed for systolic BP (P = 0.041) and mean arterial pressure (P = 0.050) in favour of TsG and for sit-to-stand test (P = 0.031) in favour of FiG. In conclusion, small-sided team sport is a worthy alternative to fitness training since the overall health effects are comparable, for example, improved balance and reduced fat mass. Team sport elicits high heart rates and improves cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure, while fitness training improves sit-to-stand test performance related to activity of daily living.
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