Effect of Small Sided Supervised Recreational Handball on Selected Physical and Psychological Parameters and General Well Being in Untrained Males

Introduction Exercise and Recreation play major role in promotion of health and fitness. Recreational exercise or sports can be useful in physically inactive population. Recreational handball can be a good alternative for development of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness. It appears that team sports like any other physical activity, can increase well-being in individuals [17], therefore, it is well expected on similar lines that recreational handball will be beneficial and have same effects in sedentary individuals. PROJECT OBJECTIVES 1. To study the effect of small sided recreational handball on following variables in untrained males: a. Physical Parameters: Body Fat Percent, Aerobic Capacity, Blood Pressure, Resting Heart Rate b. Psychological Parameters: Self Esteem, Motivation, Depression c. General Well Being: Eating Disorder, Sleep, Well Being 2. To examine relationship between Aerobic Capacity and Body Fat Percent Methodology Participants Participants will be undergraduate male students from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM). Total 24 male participants will be selected randomly following exclusion criteria. Participants will be fully informed about the risk involved and a written consent will be obtained. Exclusion criteria will be; participants who will be involved in regular physical activity with in previous one year; who are playing regular handball; those who are on prescribed medication; and those having cardiovascular diseases and obesity. Study Design Project will be carried for 12 week period. A supervised recreation handball will be offered to the participants. Two groups will be formed to study the effects. Group one will be experimental with 16 participants. Group two will be control with 12 participants. Participants will be assessed and tested at baseline level and after 12 weeks of intervention. The participants will be advised not to involve in any other physical activities during the period of 12 week intervention. Intervention Twelve weeks of supervised small sided recreational handball will be given to the participants in experimental group. There will be total four teams. Each team will consist of 4 players instead of regular seven. All games will be played on artificial handball court measuring 40x30m. Frequency of sessions will be 2 times a week. Each session will last for 30 minutes. No specific coaching instructions will be given to the participants by the investigators. Heart rate of all the participants will be measured continuously during all the handball sessions using heart rate monitors (Polar FT7 Mens Black/Silver Heart Rate Monitor Watch). Statistical Analysis Collected data will be presented as means and standard deviation. All data will be assessed for normality by using Shapiro Wilks test. Baseline measurement will be checked for any group differences before intervention using T Test. In addition, between groups differences in delta values (post minus pre values) will be tested by T Test. Pearson correlation test will be employed to examine correlation between VO2max and body fat percentage. For statistical significance, P-value will be 0.05.