Off-Training Levels of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Young Athletes: Preliminary Results during a Typical Week
Juliana Exel,
Nuno Mateus,
Bruno Travassos,
Bruno Gonçalves,
Isabel Gomes,
Nuno Leite,
Jaime Sampaio
Affiliations
Juliana Exel
Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Nuno Mateus
Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Bruno Travassos
Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, Sport Sciences Department, University of Beira Interior, 6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal
Bruno Gonçalves
Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Isabel Gomes
Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Nuno Leite
Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Jaime Sampaio
Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal
The level of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SED) off-training of young athletes may reveal the quality of recovery from training and highlight health related issues. Thus, the aim was to identify and describe young athletes’ PA and SED off-training, according to daily life activities. Eight athletes (15.7 ± 2 years, 1.72 ± 0.6 m height, 62.9 ± 10.2 kg) of a sport talent program wore on their waist a tri-axial accelerometer (ActiGraph® wGT9X-link, Shalimar, FL, USA) at 30 Hz for 15 consecutive days, and reported their schedule. A two-step cluster analysis classified three groups according to sedentary PA and MVPA. The Sedentary (56.9%), presented the highest sedentary PA (mean [CI], 37.37 [36.45⁻38.29] min/hour); The Hazardous (19.4%) had the lowest values of sedentary and MVPA (10.07 [9.41⁻10.36] min/hour and 8.67 [7.64⁻9.70] min/hour, respectively). Balanced (23.7%) had the highest MVPA (28.61 [27.16⁻30.07] min/hour). Sedentary had the lowest count of home time associated (20%) and higher school (26%) time when compared to the Hazardous (13%). The Balanced showed the highest count of school (61%) and home time (47%). Different profiles for young athletes revealed alarming behavior in the associations with sedentary PA, sitting and SED breaks, which may influence performance and health.
