Effect of an 8-week judo course on muscular endurance, trunk flexibility, and explosive strength of male university students

Judo is a worldwide sport played as a main competition in the Olympic Games and World Judo Championship with different age categories present for each competition. The level of physical fitness, tactical skills, and techniques required in judo is high as it is a high-intensity short exercise done in a periodic manner. There are very few studies that find the effects of judo exercises on judo non-Athletes. The purpose of the research was to determine the impact of an 8-week judo course on the muscular endurance, trunk flexibility, and explosive strength of male university students. Twenty students had complete data after the course. Pre and post measurements were obtained for standing long jump, sit-ups, and sit and reach to assess explosive strength, abdominal muscle endurance, and flexibility, respectively. The data were tested for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk Test. Pre and post data which were normal were compared with paired t-test, while non-normal data were compared with the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Statistical significance was set at p0.05, while Cohen d0.2 was considered of practical significance. There were significant improvements from pre to post in all measured parameters (p0.05, Cohen d0.2). The increase in values of standing long jump, sit-ups, and sit and reach at end of the course is evidence that the explosive strength, muscular endurance, and trunk flexibility of the students improved, respectively. Thus, there is evidence that the course improved some aspects of their health-related fitness even though they were not judo athletes.