Maximal oxygen uptake and cardiovascular adaptation to handball game specific endurance circuit training in handball players

Now a day, the sports team coaches, trainers and other support staffs have a hectic job to deal with the preparation of their team players with consistent, precise and greater effort to meet the demands of the competition in shortest duration. Various training modalities were adopted depending upon the necessity that improves sports performance. Handball team coaches apparently felt that fitness and skill go hand in hand, where sports specific training caters to achieve this goal. Thus, the present study focussed on assessing the adaptations of maximal oxygen uptake and cardiovascular variables to handball game specific endurance circuit training. To accomplish the purpose twenty-four (24) trained university male handball players with a playing experience of more than eight years gave consent to participate. The selected twenty-four players were classified into two groups as Handball Game Specific Endurance Circuit Training Group (HGSECTG = 12) and Control Group (CG = 12). To test the effectiveness of handball game specific endurance circuit training (HGSECT) players performed specifically constructed handball circuit 3 days in a week for 12 weeks at 90-95% of maximal heart rate for two minutes duration and active recovery by walking. HGSECTG showed significant improvement on maximal oxygen uptake (t = 8.516, p < 0.05) and distance covered in Yo-Yo test also increased (t = 8.4, p < 0.05). Similarly, cardiovascular modifications are noted in maximum heart rate (HRPEAK, t = 2.372, p < 0.05) and resting heart rate (HRREST, t = 3.975, p < 0.05) and percentage of heart rate reserve (%HRRESERVE, t = 3.004, p < 0.05). We conclude that handball game specific endurance training programs could be sufficiently suitable to develop maximal oxygen uptake and positive adaptation of cardiovascular variables in twelve weeks of training among handball players. The intensity, duration, frequency and recovery of the intervention displayed improvement in VO2PEAK with reduced condition on cardiovascular stress.