The Investigation of the Chronical Effects of Static Flexibility Exercises on Some Biomotoric and Physiological Parameters

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the chronical effects of static flexibility exercises on some biomotoric and physiological parameters in the students studying in sports high schools. A total of 130 high school students, 50 of whom were female and 80 of whom were male, who were studying at İncirliova Sports High School between 9th and 12th grades, with a mean age of 15.92±1.14, a mean sports age of 7.05±3.54, a mean body weight of 58.05±9.11 kilograms, and a mean height of 1.69±0.07 centimeters participated in the study. The participants were given training on static flexibility application with pre-tests. In order to determine the chronical effect, the participants were applied a series of tests including handgrip, sit and reach flexibility, 30 seconds push-up, static balance, vertical jump and back-leg strength tests before and after the 10-week application. The data obtained from the pre-test and post-test applications performed so as to determine the motoric characteristics of the students participating in the study was evaluated by SPSS 22.0 Package Program with a significance level of 0.05 in the 95% confidence interval. Whether the data showed normal distribution was tested by Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. Paired Sample T-test was used to test the significance of the difference between the arithmetic means of the two related groups. The frequency distributions of the students were determined in terms of gender and class levels. The minimum, maximum, mean, standard deviation and median values of the students were calculated in terms of age (year), sports age (year), body weight (kg), length (cm), and Body Mass Index (BMI). It was found that there were significant differences between the pre-test and post-test results applied to determine the motoric characteristics of the students (p<0.05). It was revealed that the post-test results of the students in terms of sit and reach flexibility and static balance performances were better than their related pre-test results. However, no significant differences were found between the pre-test and post-test results of the students in terms of back-leg strength, handgrip, push-up and vertical jump performances (p>0.05).It was determined that the 10-week static flexibility training (protocol) given to sports high school students before applied sports classes had positive effects on some biomotoric and physiological parameters.