Effects of small-sided recreational team handball training on mechanical muscle function, body composition and bone mineralization in untrained young adults-A randomized controlled trial.

Bjørn Fristrup,Susana C. A. Póvoas,Therese Hornstrup,Frederik T. Løwenstein,Per Aagaard,Jesper L. Andersen,Mikkel A. Larsen,Peter Krustrup,Jørn W. Helge,Cameron J. Mitchell

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0241359

Abstract

Prolonged physical inactivity in young adults may lead to deficiencies in musculoskeletal fitness, and thus a need exists to develop physical activity and exercise programmes that are effective of increasing musculoskeletal fitness. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effects of small-sided team handball training on lower limb muscle strength, postural balance and body composition in young adults. Twenty-six men and twenty-eight women were stratified for peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and body fat percentage and randomly allocated to either 12 wks of small-sided recreational team handball training (THG: 14 men and 14 women, age 24.1±2.6 yrs (mean±SD), VO2peak 39.8±5.9 ml/kg/min and body fat percentage 32.7±8.7%) or serving as non-exercising controls (CON: 12 men and 14 women, age 24.8±3.1 yrs, VO2peak 39.7±5.0 ml/kg/min, body fat percentage 31.7±9.7%). THG trained on average 1.8 times/week for 12 wks. At 0 and 12 wks, lower limb muscle strength, rate of force development (RFD), vertical jump height and power, postural balance, body composition and muscle biopsies were assessed. No training effects were observed for maximal isokinetic or isometric knee extensor strength, maximal vertical jump height or take-off power, fibre type distribution or capillarization. Late phase (RFD) increased (+7.4%, p<0.05) and postural sway excursion length was improved after training (-9%, p<0.05) in THG with no difference from CON (p>0.05). Further, THG demonstrated a decrease in body fat percentage (-3.7%) accompanied by increases in whole-body fat free mass (FFM) (+2.2%), leg FFM (+2.5%), total bone mineral content (BMC) (+1.1%), leg BMC (+1.2%), total hip bone mineral density (+1.6%) and hip T-score (+50%) which differed from CON (all p<0.05). In conclusion, recreational small-sided team handball training appears to effectively improve rapid force capacity, postural balance, lean and fat body mass and bone health in previously untrained young adults. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04247724).ClinicalTrials.gov ID number: NCT04247724

Highlights

Insufficient levels of physical activity is among the leading risk factors for non-communicable diseases such as poor musculoskeletal fitness, metabolic- and cardiovascular diseases [1,2,3]
Insufficient musculoskeletal fitness has been correlated to low muscle strength, sarcopenia, poor postural balance, osteopenia, and osteoporosis [4,5,6] and it becomes of importance to develop exercise programs aiming to increase physical activity levels
center of pressure (CoP) sway length was reduced in team handball group (THG) (-9.0%, p = 0.054), whereas there was no change in control group (CON) and no significant between-group difference (Fig 3 & Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Insufficient levels of physical activity is among the leading risk factors for non-communicable diseases such as poor musculoskeletal fitness, metabolic- and cardiovascular diseases [1,2,3]. Insufficient musculoskeletal fitness has been correlated to low muscle strength, sarcopenia, poor postural balance, osteopenia, and osteoporosis [4,5,6] and it becomes of importance to develop exercise programs aiming to increase physical activity levels. It has been stated, that participation in regular physical activity from a young age will increase the chance for continuing physical activity across a lifespan [7] and thereby reduce the risks associated with physical inactivity. It was of interest to investigate if other modified versions of known intermittent sports could elicits same improvements of the musculoskeletal fitness

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion