Effects of callisthenic exercise programme on coordinative ability and agility of university sports players

Abstract

Calisthenics exercises range from very simple movements (like squats) to advanced movements such as muscle-ups and more complex exercises similar to gymnastics. It is proven to provide the benefits of muscular and aerobic conditioning. Hence the objective of the study was to investigate the effects of the callisthenic exercise programme on the coordination and agility of University of Jaffna sports players. To achieve this purpose, thirty (N=30) male subjects within the age range from 19 to 26 years were randomly selected from University of Jaffna sports players and were randomly assigned to two groups (n=15). Group I underwent six (06) weeks of a callisthenic exercise training programme and group II acted as the control. The data were collected on coordination (wall toss test) and agility (shuttle run test) before and after the callisthenic exercise training programme. The collected data were analysed by computing the mean and standard deviation and paired sample t- test (p < 0.05) was used to find out whether there was any significant improvement in the tested variables due to callisthenic training. The results obtained indicated that there was a significant improvement in the coordinative ability (t=12.56) and agility (t=10.12). From the result, it was concluded that the six weeks of calisthenics exercise is adequate to improve the bio motor variable.