PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OF ADULTS DURING GREEK TRADITIONAL DANCE AND TENNIS SESSIONS

Abstract

Physical Activity (PA) is connected with many health benefits and leads to a better quality of life. However, the modern way of life imposes such high levels of sedentary behaviours that physical inactivity is among the key risk factors for mortality. People’s participation in active recreational and/or exercise programmes that increase the levels of PA seems imperative if their health is to be enhanced. The aim of this study was to examine the potential differences between the PA offered by Greek Traditional Dance (GTD) and Tennis to adult participants. One hundred and two adults, aged 20 to 76 years, members of GTD (n=57) and Tennis (n=45) clubs, volunteered to participate in the study. The PA gathered during GTD or Tennis was recorded during two randomly selected sessions with Omron 720 pedometers. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was computed on the participants’ total steps (TS) and aerobic steps (AS). Statistically significant differences were found between GTD and Tennis in TS (F1,100=35.18, p<.001, η2=.26) in favour of GTD, but not in AS (F1,100=.87, p=.35, η2=.009). It can be concluded that GTD sessions offer higher levels of ambulatory activity than Tennis. However, taking into account both the recommendations of daily PA for adults (>10.000 steps/day) and the finding of previous studies reporting PA accumulated during various recreational/sport activities, it appears that both GTD and Tennis can significantly help people achieve satisfactory PA levels.