An eight-week exercise programme improves physical fitness of sedentary female adolescents

Background and purpose. This study investigated the effects of an eight-week supervised circuit-training programme with moderate intensity on the physical fitness of sedentary female adolescents. Methods. Thirty healthy females aged 14-18 years volunteered for the study. Subjects were randomly assigned into exercise (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups. The exercise group received 60 minutes of supervised circuit-exercise training twice a week for eight weeks. Subjects in the control group did not receive any training throughout the study period. Measurements were taken before the programme and at the end of weeks 4 and 8, which included resting heart rate, skin-fold thickness, body mass, sit-and-reach excursion, and number of sit-ups performed in one minute. Results and Findings. There were no significant changes in any of the measurements in the control group. The training group had improved sit-up performance (p < 0.001) and reduced body mass (p = 0.015) with training. Post-hoc contrasts revealed that the significant changes occurred between week 0 and week 4, and week 4 and week 8. Conclusion. Sixty minutes of moderate exercise training twice a week for four weeks can effectively reduce body mass and improve muscular strength of the trunk for sedentary female adolescents. Further improvements are possible with a further four weeks of training.Department of Rehabilitation Science