Performance and exertional variations during walking, running and jumping on terrains of varying compliance

11th annual Congress of the EUROPEAN COLLEGE OF SPORT SCIENCE 05-08 July LAUSANNE 2006 - SwitzerlandThis paper reviews three coordinated studies that investigated the effects of terrains of varying compliance (sand and a hard surface) during walking, running and jumping. The compliance of sand for each research objective was not significantly different and was verified by measurements using a rapid cone penetrometer. Walking on sand: Fourteen adult males participated with a mean age of 34.6 years, who were 72.6 kg in mass, and 172.5 cm in stature. They walked at 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 km.hr-1 on sand and grass surfaces. Physiological measures included heart rate, O2 uptake, CO2 exhalation, ventilation (VE), and relative oxygen uptake. Results indicated that there was a significant increase (p<0.01) in all physiological indices when walking on sand compared to grass at 3 to 7 km.hr-1, with the greatest disparity between the surfaces (ratio=1.63) in relative oxygen uptake at 5 km.hr-1. Running on sand: Twenty adult male participants with a mean age of 27.7 years, who were 78.3 kg in mass, 179.1 cm in stature and 13.1% body fat. The Multi-Stage Fitness Test (MSFT) was the running protocol used on sand and grass surfaces. Two responses were evaluated namely heart rate and Ratings of Perceived Exertion. There was a significant (p<0.05) elevation in heart rate response by approximately 9% and an increased RPE of 17% when running on sand, and this resulted in an overall mean performance decrement of 37.3% in terms of MSFT shuttles (distance) completed. Jumping on sand: Forty one male participants with a mean age of 20.4 years, who were 79.56 kg in mass, 178.03 in stature and 12.6% body fat. The mean vertical jump performance (VJP) achieved on sand was 49.0 cm, compared to 55.11 cm on a hard surface. The mean VJP on sand was 11.03% less than that achieved on a hard surface, which was significantly (p