Post-exercise Cardiovascular Status of Pupils in Ibadan

AbstractThis paper comparatively examines the cardiovascular status measured in terms of heartrate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure of primary school pupils in Ibadanafter going through a 12-week progressive resistance exercise training.A total of one hundred and twenty (120) volunteered pupils were drawn purposively from four(two public and two private) primary schools in Ibadan. The randomized classic experimentalresearch design with one experimental and one control group was employed in the study.Systematic random sampling technique was used to allocate sixty (60) participants to eachof the two groups, namely: the progressive resistance exercise (PRE) and the control groups.The PRE trainings adhered strictly to the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines onquality and quantity of exercise trainings. The control group did not partake in any organisedtraining during the period. However, the pupils were not restricted from their normal dailyactivities. The cardiovascular variables measured were subjected to frequency counts,percentages, normative table scores, mean and standard deviation for analysis and discussions.Results show that the average age of the pupils was 9 years 8 months, 68 (56.7%) of theparticipants were male while 52 (43.3%) were female; the post-training mean height of theparticipants in the PRE group is 1.36±0.09m while that of weight is 29.52± 5.82kg. It alsoreveals that post-exercise HR (81.86bpm within 80-120bpm) of the participants were at thenormal level and their average post-exercise blood pressure (98.94/61.87mmHg) werenormal within 100-120/60-75mmHg.