The Effect of Long-term Aerobic Training on the Body Fat Reduction for High School Girls

Lee, Chung Geun

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aerobic training on body fat reduction. A total of 978 high school girls participated in this study (freshmen = 365 ; junior = 300 ; senior = 313). Within each grade, subjects who showed interest in physical exercise were selected and assigned into athletes group (20 for freshmen, 22 for junior, 29 for senior). The athletes group performed aerobic exercise for 100 minutes per day, 5 days a week with 70% of a subject's maximal heart rate. Each subject agreed to participate in this study when she was freshman. Thus, the length of exercise was dependent upon subject grade. That is, senior group was on the exercise program for two and half years, junior group for one and half years, and freshman group for six months. The results are as follows : 1. The mean value of % body fat for athletes group were 21.23 for freshman, 21.57 for junior, and 21.49 for senior. These values were a bit smaller when compared to those for non-athletes groups (26.32, 24.76, 23.65 for freshman, junior and senior, respectively). The comparison of % body fat between athletes and non-athletes group showed that the largest difference was showed in freshman group, followed by junior and senior groups. 2. For the athletes groups there was no significant difference in the mean value of % body fat between 3 grades. However, this was not the case for the non-athletes groups. There was a significant difference (p<001) among the 3 grades for the non-athletes groups, the freshman group being the largest, followed by junior and senior.