The cardiovascular and metabolic responses to Ultimate Frisbee in healthy adults

The purpose of the study was to assess the cardiovascular and metabolic responses to Ultimate Frisbee and to determine if Ultimate Frisbee does meet the current guidelines for improving and maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness. The hypothesis for the study was that Ultimate Frisbee is an ideal alternative exercise modality. Participants comprised of sixteen young adults who were aged between 18 and 25 years mostly from a local university's student population. The participants comprised of 12 men and 4 women. Eligible participants for the study had to be low risk and physically active as defined by ACSM. Any participant who had cardiovascular or metabolic disease were excluded. Testing was conducted on non-consecutive testing days and testing sessions were separated by 2 to 20 days. The cardiovascular and metabolic responses for each participant were assessed as they were playing Ultimate Frisbee during one half of the match. Resting metabolic rate for each participant was also measured. This was a cross-sectional study.
The heart rate for the participants during the 20min simulated match was about 149 beats/min, which corresponded to 66 heart rate reserve. The total amount of energy used during the match was 1995 kj/match. There were no significant differences between men and women for cardiovascular and metabolic responses.
The results of the study demonstrate that Ultimate Frisbee could be a suitable alternative to aerobics and other exercise regimes. The study only made use of healthy and physically fit participants, which makes it hard to implement the study for older or other categories of individuals.
The authors conclude that Ultimate Frisbee does meet the standard criteria for physical activity guidelines and can be used as an alternative exercise modality. They also noted they did not have any data on non-fit and non-healthy participants.
While the study does have positive effects in terms of using Ultimate Frisbee, it would have been good if the researchers had also studied the effects of the match on non-ft and non-healthy participants as compared the healthy and fit participants. I would have included subjects who were non-fit and non-healthy in the study.
Hallgren, M. Å., Moss, N. D., & Gastin, P. (2010). Regular exercise participation mediates the affective response to acute bouts of vigorous exercise. Journal of sports science & medicine, 9(4), 629.
The study aimed to investigate the effects of a single bout of intense exercise on anxiety and mood in a cohort of male and female regular and non-regular exercisers. The hypothesis of the study was that regular exercisers would report having post-exercise improvements in mood states and reduced anxiety, while the non-regular exercisers would report an initial decline in mood and an increased post-exercise state anxiety. This was cohort study where regular exercisers were compared to non-regular exercisers. The study participants comprised of 31 university students 16 males and 15 females with a median age of 20 years. Sixteen of the participants reported to be regular exercisers and fifteen were non-regular exercisers. Participants had to fill out a questionnaire 24 hour before the exercise session and a second pre-test questionnaire was administered before the exercise begun. There were two post-exercise questionnaires that participants had to complete. The first was 10 minutes into the exercise session and the second was 25minutes into the exercise session.
The results of the study indicate that non-regular exercisers reported having an initial decline in post-exercise mood and increased anxiety that was followed by improvement in mood and reduction in anxiety that went back to the pre-exercise levels. The regular exercisers reported having significant post-exercise improvements in mood and reduction in state anxiety. The researchers were not able to confirm their hypothesis that participants would feel more anxious just before the exercise test as compared to baseline.
The study was able to answer its research question and confirm its hypothesis. The researchers have noted the weaknesses of the study and they have offered suggestions for future research.
The authors concluded that affective response to vigorous bouts of exercise can be mediated by previous exercise participation. Future adherence to exercise is impacted by the affective response to acute bouts of vigorous exercise. Therefore, it is best to consider the participant's participation in exercise before prescribing new exercise regimes.
It would have been best if the tests were carried out using the preferred exercise of the participants, which might have had different results for the non-regular exercisers.
Weatherwax, R., Byrd, B. R., Van De Velde, S., & Dalleck, L. C. (2015). The cardiovascular and metabolic responses to Ultimate Frisbee in healthy adults. Journal of Fitness and Research, 4(3).