NCT05722899

Football 4 Health in Middle-aged to Older Adults

Ten Weeks of Recreational Football Training in 55- to 70-year-old Adults: Effects on Muscle Power, Functional Capacity, Body Composition and Endurance Exercise Capacity

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (actual)
• Sponsor: KU Leuven · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 55 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Ageing in humans is accompanied by a progressive decline in lower-limb muscle power production. In addition to a decline in musculoskeletal fitness, ageing is associated with a reduction in cardiovascular and metabolic fitness. Therefore, if exercise interventions aim for a high impact on the overall health status of middle-aged and older adults, they should combine endurance, high-intensity interval training and muscular strengthening activities. Recreational football training combines all these training components, which implies that it could constitute an adequate training modality for participants of all ages. What remains to be investigated in more detail, is whether recreational football training can improve muscle power production in middle-aged to older adults and whether this potential improvement is present across the full force-velocity (F-V) profile. Next to a detailed analysis of the leg-extensor F-V profile as primary outcome, simultaneous effects on functional capacity, body composition and endurance exercise capacity were investigated. In addition, feasibility and the physical demands (internal and external load indicators) of the training program were tracked throughout the intervention period.

Conditions

• Exercise Training

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Football training	10-week progressive football training with small-sided games, 2x/week, 45min-1h sessions

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-02-01
• Primary completion: 2021-07-15
• Completion: 2021-07-15
• First posted: 2023-02-10
• Last updated: 2023-02-10

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Belgium