Original Research Article
Year: 2020 | Month: March | Volume: 10 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 22-27
Health-Related Physical Fitness Levels Among the Young Male Workers Performing Moderate and Heavy Physical Activity
Prachi Patel1, Rauf Iqbal 2
1PhD Fellow Student, NITIE, Mumbai, India.
2Associate Professor, NITIE, Mumbai, India.
Corresponding Author: Prachi Patel
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Health and fitness have a direct impact on work and leisure as it enables one to meet their day-to-day physical demands and decrease the probabilities of illness. Many employment situations require workers to be physically 'fit' and 'strong' to perform various occupational activities. Physical fitness is fully developed during the young adulthood and starts dipping from middle adulthood. Thus the Five components of Health-related fitness (HRF) can help understand the Physical fitness levels among the workers performing physical work of different intensity.
Methods: To assess the HRF levels, 69 healthy male workers, age 18–30 years were selected and classified into Moderate or Heavy PA (Physical Activity) group. Physical measurements on five components of HRF (Caspersen et.al., 1985) were measured using 13 test.
Results: Overall results revealed that Moderate PA group (n=32) scored significantly higher for Muscle Mass, Bone Mass, Hand Strength, Tip and Palmar Pinch Strength. Heavy PA workers (n=37) had significantly lower BMI, Fat %, Metabolic Age, Hip and Waist Circumference, which is a good indicator for better fitness. Likewise, Aerobic Fitness, Low Back Flexibility and Trunk lift scores were significantly superior than Moderate PA group. No significant difference was found in WHR, Key Pinch, Back Strength, Explosive strength of Leg, Push-up and Sit-up.
Conclusion: Moderate type of physical work may have contributed for better Bone Mass, Muscle Mass, Hand Strength, Tip and Palmar Pinch Strength; while heavy type of physical work may have attributed to lower Fat% and BMI; with enhanced Flexibility and Aerobic Capacity among the Heavy PA workers.
Key words: Health-Related Fitness (HRF), Physical activity, Moderate and Heavy workload.