Abstract
Handball activity involves cardiac changes and demands a mixture of both eccentric and concentric remodeling within the heart. This study seeks to explore heart performance and cardiac remodeling likely to define cardiac parameters which influence specific performance in male handball players across different age ranges. Forty three players, with a regular training and competitive background in handball separated into three groups aged on average 11.78±0.41 for youth players aka “schools”, “elite juniors” 15.99±0.81 and “elite adults” 24.46±2.63 years, underwent echocardiography and ECG examinations. Incremental ergocycle and specific field (SFT) tests have also been conducted. With age and regular training and competition, myocardial remodeling in different age ranges exhibit significant differences in dilatation’s parameters between “schools” and “juniors” players, such as the end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and the end-systolic diameter of the left ventricle (LVESD), the root of aorta (Ao) and left atrial (LA), while significant increase is observed between “juniors” and “adults” players in the interventricular septum (IVS), the posterior wall thicknesses (PWT) and LV mass index. ECG changes are also noted but NS differences were observed in studied parameters. For incremental maximal test, players demonstrate a significant increase in duration and total work between “schools” and “juniors” and, in total work only, between “juniors” and “seniors”. The SFT shows improvement in performance which ranged between 26.17±1.83 sec to 31.23±2.34 sec respectively from “seniors” to “schools”. The cross-sectional approach used to compare groups with prior hypothesis that there would be differences in exercise performance and cardiac parameters depending on duration of prior handball practice, leads to point out the early cardiac remodeling within the heart as adaptive change. Prevalence of cardiac chamber dilation with less hypertrophy remodeling was found from “schools” to “juniors” while a prevalence of cardiac hypertrophy with less pronounced chamber dilation remodeling was noted later.
Highlights
The game of handball is characterized by actions done in a high intensity of cyclic and acyclic structures of movements performed within a wide register of technical elements, to solve problems posed by varied and complex offensive and defensive situations, after fast perception and decision making in defined space and timing [1]
Obtained data (Table 1) show body mass index (BMI) in 3 studied groups and values that increase with age for the body surface area (BSA)
The fixed Total Work in different age ranges after incremental maximal exercise test performed on the cycle ergometer followed a progressive increase from “schools” 186.68±26, 356.27±30 in “juniors” to 438±27 watts in “seniors”
Summary
The game of handball is characterized by actions done in a high intensity of cyclic and acyclic structures of movements performed within a wide register of technical elements, to solve problems posed by varied and complex offensive and defensive situations, after fast perception and decision making in defined space and timing [1]. The rhythm of the game imposes on handball players an intermittent type of effort which involves both isotonic and isometric forms of exercise to achieve individual and team motor skills with and without the ball. These exercises are performed primarily anaerobically, such as in accelerations, jumping and ball throwing or aerobically, in order to satisfy requests for rapid recovery between high-intensity efforts and to preserve a high level of performance during the whole match [2,3,4]. That is why we found it appropriate to compare the working capacity and cardiac adaptation across normal growth and development of male preadolescent children “schools”, adolescent “juniors” and young adult “seniors” handball players using a cross-sectional approach with a priori hypothesis that there would be exercise performance and cardiac parameter differences as a function of age and corollary duration of prior handball experience
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