Abstract:
Physical inactivity in daily life is a globalhealth concern linked to metabolic syndrome, poor anthropometric and mal-functional cardiopulmonary indices. This induces obesity and overweight, which are the fifth leading global mortalityrisk and increase diseases with consistent prevalence among youths. Previous studies have focused largely on conventional regimes to correct health challenges associated with obesity, overweight and mal-functional cardiopulmonary indices with little attention paid to Whole-body Vibration (WbV) and Resistance Training (RT). This study was, therefore, designed to examine the effects of WbV and RT on obesity, overweight and cardiopulmonary fitness variables (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, peak expiratory flow, peak VO2) of University of Ibadan undergraduates. The moderating effects of gender and stage of development were also examined.
The study was hinged on the Newton’s Second Law of Motion, while the pretest-posttest control group experimental design of 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Sixty-five sedentary undergraduates were purposively recruited from the Faculties of Education, Law, The Social Sciences and Arts. Percent body fat measures were taken to ascertain their fitness level at the entry point; these were compared with percent body fat norm values of (male -13.6, 16.4) and (female -23.8, 24.5). Participants were assigned to WbV (20), RT (26) and control (19) groups, while treatment lasted 12weeks. Instruments used were WbV machine, multi-gym facility and the bench press. Data were subjected to percentages and Analysis of covariance at 0.05 level of significance.
Participants were female (58.5%),and were adolescents (23.1%)and young adults (76.9%). Treatment had significant main effects on anthropometric variables: percent body fat (F(3,61)=9.36; partial η2=0.24), BMI (F(3,61)=28.32; partial η2=0.48), lean body weight (F(3,61)=12.23; partial η2=0.29), flexibility (F(3,61)=13.78; partial η2=0.31), average leg power (F(3,61)= 8.74; partial η2=0.22) and arm strength (F(3,61)=33.91; partial η2=0.53). Participants in WbV (1229.67) had a higher mean score than those in RT (1220.48) and control (936.70) groups. Treatment also had significant main effects on cardiopulmonary fitness variables: systolic blood pressure (F(3,61)=64.08; partial η2=0.21), diastolic blood pressure (F(3,61)=3.12; partial η2=0.09); peak expiratory flow (F(3,61)=41.92; partial η2=0.58) and PeakVO2 (F(3,61)=25.20; partial η2=0.45).Participants in WbV (44.34) had a higher mean score than those in RT (43.68) and control (42.18) groups. There was a significant main effect of gender (F(2,62)=42.31; partial η2=0.41) in favour of the male participants from WbV groups, while that of stage of development was not significant. The two-way interaction effect of treatment and gender was significant (F(6,58)=6.32; partial η2=0.18) in favour of male participants from the WbV groups, while treatment and stage of development, and gender and stage of development were not significant. The three-way interaction effect was also not significant.
Whole body vibration, more than resistance training, enhanced cardiopulmonary fitness variables and reduced obesity and overweight among undergraduates of University of Ibadan. Therefore, it should be used regularly to control obesity and overweight and improve cardiopulmonary indices among undergraduates, particularly the female.
