The Effect of Recreational Physical Activity Training on Bio-motor Characteristics of Secondary School Students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of recreational physical activity training on biomotor characteristics of 12-age group secondary school students. A total of 116 physically inactive male students in secondary school participated in this study as healthy and volunteer. Participants were divided randomly into three groups: the recreational soccer training group (SG; n: 43; height: 146.51±9.01 cm; weight: 37.73±12.20 kg), the recreational volleyball training group (VG; n: 37; height: 146.97±7.19 cm; weight: 42.04±11.39 kg) and the control group (CG; n: 36; height: 141.53±8.27 cm; weight: 39.62±11.72 kg). SG and VG completed their recreational physical activities in 2 days a week for 24 weeks. The body composition, speed, agility, flexibility, strength, anaerobic power and aerobic power values were measured. The paired-samples t-test and one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons were used for evaluations of the groups. The level of significance was used at 0.05. The results of the body composition and bio-motor capacities were significantly higher in favor of SG and VG than CG. In conclusion, recreational soccer and volleyball trainings may be proposed as entertaining physical activities that stimulate both body composition and bio-motor capacities.