Analysis of the basic physical capacities of athletics practicers at the olympic experimental gym of rio de janeiro: a retrospective study

Abstract

This longitudinal retrospective study aimed to compare the cardiopulmonary performance, muscular strength and speed of athletes practicing athletics (11 to 15 years old), trained at the Olympic Experimental Gymnasium (GEO), in the City of Rio de Janeiro, in the 100m run modes, 400m run and ball throw. One hundred and eighteen schoolchildren were divided into two groups: G 1: 8th and 9th grade students, who trained 5 times a week in 100 m run modalities (n = 32); 400 m run (n = 18) and ball throw (n = 20); G 2: 6th and 7th year students, who trained 3 times a week in 100 m running modalities (n = 20); 400 m run (n = 15) and ball throw (n = 13). Anthropometric data were collected, with horizontal and vertical impulsion, medicine ball, 20-meter run and 6-minute run before and after the training period. The Wilcoxon test was used for intragroup analysis and Mann Whitney test for intergroup analysis. The percentage of variation (delta) was determined using the Kruskall Wallis method followed by Dunn. The level of significance was set at 5%. Anthropometric data (body mass, height and BMI) did not change during the training period in any of the modalities (p> 0.05). In all modalities there was significant improvement of lower limb strength, upper limb strength (medicine ball) and cardiorespiratory fitness (6 min run) after training. However, the velocity did not show significant improvement. It was concluded that a full-time school intervention program, with a weekly frequency of 3 to 5 times for 2 hours, improves the physical fitness of schoolchildren.