EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT INTENSITY LEVELS OF CIRCUIT RESISTANCE TRAINING ON PHYSIOLOGICAL VARIABLES OF YOUNG FEMALE ADULTS IN PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.0Background of the Study

Circuit resistance training (CRT) is a great type of training routine that offers a number of benefits, especially for those who have a limited time for workout. Circuit resistance training is the practice of doing exercises with resistance and moving simultaneously from one station to the next with no real break in between exercise. It can be designed to increase muscular strength and power, muscular endurance, flexibility and to a limited extent, cardio-respiratory endurance. However, the physiological effects depend to a large extent on the type of circuit that is set up. For example, a circuit consisting only of weight-resistance exercises produce substantial gains in strength but only minimal gains in cardio-respiratory endurance (Gettman, Ayres, Pollock, and Jackson, 1978; Wilmore,Parr, Girandola, Ward, Vodak, Barstow, Pipes, Romero, and Laslie, 1978).

The physiological effects of circuit resistance training (CRT) onbody composition, resting blood pressure, and resting metabolic rate (RMR) of females have been of great interest to exercise scientists, dieticians, clinicians, coaches, allied sports and health professionals. Since early times, different kind of training programmes that may also be effective in improving health and fitness in females is the circuit resistance training (CRT). Corbin and Lindsey (1994), defined circuit resistance training as a routine of selected weight exercises or activities performed as possible in a sequence at circuitous individual stations.

In recent times, circuit resistance training (CRT) has become a popular and standard practice in research studies and a means to improve health and fitness profiles of females over the course of training. Thus, circuit resistance training is one of the training methods used to improve health and fitness.

Circuit resistance training is being favored by some fitness specialists and coaches in the training and conditioning of athletes and non-athletes, to improve their health and fitness.

Body composition is of great interest to coaches and athletes. Body size influences physical performance in many sports, health and fitness and appearance in women. Body composition consists of absolute and relative amounts of muscle, bone, fat tissues, water, minerals and other components of total body mass (Heyward, 1991). Researchers, in general, refer to body composition in terms of fat percentage (%BF), fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM), with fat free mass as body structures excluding fat mass (Wilmore and Costill, 1994). Weight and body composition are directly related to energy balance. Energy balance is influenced by expenditure from physical activity, recreational and occupational exercises (Heyward, 1991; Jakicic and Otto, 2006). Studies suggest that regular exercise has positive effect on body weight, body composition and aging (Aderson&Jakicic, 2009; Heyward, 1991).A variety of exercise modes benefits body composition, improves health, and enhance exercise performance. Resistance training helps build fat-free mass as well as promoting positive changes in body composition (Ucan, 2013)

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT INTENSITY LEVELS OF CIRCUIT RESISTANCE TRAINING ON PHYSIOLOGICAL VARIABLES OF YOUNG FEMALE ADULTS IN PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA