Effect of Coronavirus Outbreak on Selective Physical Fitness Components of Athlete Students: From Lockdown to Reopening of Schools

Recent pandemic lockdowns restricted physical activity levels for students. In particular, athlete students experienced limited access to their usual recreational or athletic activities. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of two years of lockdown on muscular endurance, strength and power in athlete students of Amir Kabir Physical Education Conservatory School.۶۰ twelfth-grade students recruited and after completing researchers made survey (including their BMI index, activity during lockdown and athletic level) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) (to measure MET level), they performed Sit ups, Pull ups and Long jump tests and their scores were recorded and compared exactly with their scores recorded pre-lockdown when they were at tenth-grade of high school.The results of paired t test showed that there were no difference in Sit ups test pre to post lockdown (P=۰.۱). Also, their Pull ups (P=۰.۰۳۷) and Long jump (P=۰.۰۰۲) tests had significantly higher scores compare to pre-lockdown. In complementary examination, the results of ANCOVA test with co-variation of pre-lockdown scores, shows that there were no difference in physical fitness components of students neither according to their athletic level (recreational vs. professional) and nor their MET level (P> ۰.۰۵ for all tests). However, there were significant difference just in their Sit ups test according to whether they continued their activities during lockdown (P=۰.۰۴). Those students who continued their athletic activity during lockdown had greater scores (۴۰.۹۵±۱.۹۸ reps) and those who choose to be non-active, confronted greater decrease (۳۴.۴۸±۱.۴ reps) in their Sit ups posttest.These findings indicate that students’ higher scores in muscular strength and power tests may be due to their natural growth rate or the type of activities (mostly strength training at home or gym) they perform during lockdown. We conclude that in accordance with recent pandemic literature, maintaining minimum level of physical activities, have kept students’ physical fitness at least unaffected.

کلیدواژه ها:

coronavirus ، Physical fitness ، Activity ، Athlete ، students