title: Recreational football training improved health-related physical fitness in 9- to 10-year-old boys.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recreational football is an aerobic/anaerobic intermittent sport with altering exercise periods at high or low intensity. Various football drills and body movement in this exercise may easily attract children to take part in. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that recreational football training would improve the health-related physical fitness in healthy 9- to 10-year-old boys, compared to the outcome from non-exercise boys.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty boys were randomly allocated into the football and control groups. Body composition, predicted maximal oxygen uptake, heart rate responses during submaximal exercise, running ability, muscle strengths, and body balance and flexibility were measured before and after the experimental period. No dietary modification was suggested to the boys in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Following 10 weeks of recreational football training, the football group achieved significant improvements in body fat% (-2.42%), fat mass (-0.93 kg), abdominal fat (-0.06 kg), 50-meter run (-0.9 s), long jump (+7.6 cm), core muscle strength (front bridge increased by 10.9 s and side bridge increased by 5.6 s), and body balance (single-leg standing time increased by 5.2 s). The heart function during submaximal exercise and predicted maximal oxygen uptake were also significantly improved in the trained boys. There were no changes in these variables of the control group. There was no sport injury occurred during the training program. The daily energy intake was not changed for all boys before and after the interventions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The 10-week recreational football training is an effective method to improve the health-related physical fitness in 9- to 10-year-old boys.
authors: College of Sports Science, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China.
authors: Jin
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Tianjin Physical Fitness Research Center, Department of Health and Exercise Science, Tianjin University of Sport, Tianjin, China.
authors: Liquan
authors: L
authors: Cao
authors: Tianjin Physical Fitness Research Center, Department of Health and Exercise Science, Tianjin University of Sport, Tianjin, China.
authors: Pengfei
authors: P
authors: Xie
authors: School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia - wangj@usq.edu.au.
authors: Jianxiong
authors: J
authors: Wang
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000293:Adolescent; D001823:Body Composition; D049628:Body Size; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005538:Football / Q000502:physiology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology