Impact of types of sports on physical capacity in young athletes

Abstract

Objective Our aim is to assess the impact of types of sports on the physical capacity in young athletes. Methods Forty-eight participants divided into 4 groups 13 sedentary (SED), 11 cyclists, 12 weightlifters and 12 runners. All performed a maximal effort test until exhaustion. Data were expressed as mean (±\xa0SD) and median. Differences were tested by Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test. The pattern was studied by principal component analysis. Results There is no significant difference between the four groups regarding age, resting diastolic blood pressure, arterial pressures at maximum effort, maximum heart rate (HR) and double product. The resting HR and resting systolic blood pressure are significantly higher in SED. The number of levels achieved, duration of effort, and the number of METS reached are significantly higher in cyclists than the other groups. The HR recovery, after one minute and then after 5\xa0minutes of cessation of effort is low among athletes regardless of their discipline and significantly elevated in the sedentary. The seven significant variables were included in a main component analysis. The first two axes of the PCA express 76.13% of the total inertia of the dataset. Dimension 1 is strongly correlated with the duration of the effort, number of levels, and METS. It separates the cyclists, who take high values on this axis, and the other groups, which take relatively low values. Dimension 2 is correlated with resting and recovery HR at 1 and 5\xa0minutes. It separates SED people, who takes high values, and runners and weightlifters, who take low values. Cyclists took average values on this axis. The analysis does not allow the distinction between runners and weightlifters in this plane. Conclusion The cyclists demonstrate excellent physical capacity, far exceeding that of the other three groups marked by a number of levels achieved, duration of effort, the number of METS reached the highest.