Original articles  EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOMECHANICS 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2002 March;42(1):14-8

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Changes in selected fitness parameters following six weeks of snowshoe training

Connolly D. A. J., Henkin J. A., Tyzbir R. S.

From the Human Performance Laboratory, Program in Physical Education and Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA

Background. Recently, ­there has ­been an ­increase in pop­u­lar­ity and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the ­sport of snow­shoe­ing. While the ­sport has ­gained con­sid­er­able rec­og­ni­tion, to ­date ­there is lit­tle or no sci­en­tif­ic ­research regard­ing train­ing respons­es to snow­shoe­ing as a ­form of exer­cise. Therefore, the pur­pose of ­this ­study was to deter­mine wheth­er snow­shoe train­ing ­could ­improve fit­ness meas­ures. A fur­ther pur­pose was to com­pare respons­es ­from a snow­shoe train­ing pro­gram to a sim­i­lar­ly ­designed run train­ing pro­gram.
Methods. This pros­pec­tive, com­par­a­tive ­study was con­duct­ed ­with ­healthy ­males and ­females ­between the ­ages of 19 and 24. These sub­jects ­were recruit­ed ­from the University of Vermont pop­u­la­tion and sur­round­ing com­mu­nity. Following base­line meas­ure­ments in V.O2max, run­ning ­time to exhaus­tion (RTE), and anthro­po­me­try, 17 sub­jects (10 snow­shoers and 7 run­ners) par­tic­i­pat­ed in a six ­week con­di­tion­ing pro­gram. Both ­groups exer­cised for 30 min­ at 75-85% age pre­dict­ed max­i­mum ­heart ­rate, 3-4 ­times per ­week, for a ­total of 18 ses­sions.
Results. V.O2max ­improved sig­nif­i­cant­ly in ­both run­ning and snow­shoe­ing ­groups, 6.3 and 8.5%, respec­tive­ly. Run ­time to exhaus­tion ­also ­improved sig­nif­i­cant­ly in ­both ­groups, 23.3 and 33.5%, respec­tive­ly. There ­were no chang­es in anthro­pom­e­try for ­either ­group. With the excep­tion of RTE, ­there ­were no sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­enc­es ­between ­groups in any oth­er meas­ure­ments at base­line.
Conclusions. These ­results sup­port the accept­abil­ity of snow­shoe­ing as a val­id ­means to ­improve or main­tain car­di­o­vas­cu­lar endu­rance.