Case Study on the Change of Body Composition and Physical Fitness of Female College Students through Six-Week Home Training

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of home training(HT) and gym training(GT) on body composition and basic physical fitness in female college students.
 Method: In this study, 39 female first-year physical education students enrolled in K University in D city were selected as the subjects of the home training group(HT, n=15), gym training group(GT, n=12), and control group(Con, n=12). The subjects were fully informed of the purpose of the study and gave their voluntary consent to participate in the study. Body composition was measured by Weight, Body Mass Index, Percent Body Fat, Body Fat Mass, Lean Body Mass, and Skeletal Muscle Mass. Physical fitness was measured by grip strength, sit-ups, vertical jump, sitting trunk flexion, and standing on one leg with eyes closed. The exercise program consisted of a warm-up, main exercises(upper body, core, and lower body), and a cool-down, with the core exercises being the same for both programs. Data processing for this study was performed using the SPSS 27.0 statistical program to calculate the mean and standard deviation for each measure, and a two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was performed to examine the effect of each item by group and time of measurement. If the interaction was significant, a paired samples t-test was performed, and a one-way analysis of variance was performed to analyze the difference in the mean of the dependent variable between groups at the same time point. Statistical significance was considered at p<.05 for all measures.
 Results: The main effects of body composition period were significant(p<.05) for body weight, LBM, and skeletal muscle mass, with no significant group interaction. Post hoc tests of the main effect of time revealed a significant main effect for body weight, but no significant post hoc differences from pre to post for any group. The main effects of physical fitness period were significant(p<.01) for the vertical jump, grip strength(left), grip strength(right), sit-ups, and standing on one leg with eyes closed, but the group interaction was not significant for all items. Post hoc tests of the main effect of time showed that the HT group significantly(p<.05) increased from pre to post in the standing vertical jump, grip strength(left) was significantly(p<.05) lower in the GT group from pre to post, and sit-ups were significantly(p<.01) higher in the HT group from pre to post.
 Conclusion: Gathering the results above, the home training group showed an increase in sit-ups and vertical jump in place from the pre- to post-training, it is possible to see some effectiveness of the training, but it is difficult to clear conclusions. Therefore, further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of home training.