부산대학교 도서관

The limited physical activities and insufficient hours in physical education have become a critical issue among elementary school students in Taiwan. The reduced muscle mass and increased fat rate were prevailing because of insufficient physical activities, and the risk of metabolic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, types II of diabetes, and sarcopenia, were highly associated with obesity and low physical activities. In previous studies, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been elucidated as an effective workout with efficiency and physiological benefits. Purpose: In the current study, we hypothesize that HIIT programs could improve the health-related physical and performance-related physical fitness, and the anthropometric indexes in the elementary population with six weeks duration (twice per week and 30 minutes/time). Methods: Based on purposive sampling, the elementary school students were allocated into HIIT experiment group and control group (n = 55 for each group) with parallel and pretest-posttest control group designs to observe the effects of the HIIT program on physical fitness (power, speed, agility, and cardiorespiratory fitness) and body composition. Results: In the comparison of pretest-posttest on health-related physical and performance-related physical fitness, and anthropometry, the experimental group demonstrated a significant improvement in body fat percentage, skeletal muscle percentage, body mass index, 30-meter sprint, standing long jump, 20-meter × 4 foldback, and 800-meter running within groups, and only the standing long jump in the control group was significantly elevated. Regarding gender differences, only the male students in the experimental group significantly increased in the 30-meter sprint (p ＜ .05) compared to the other three groups. On the delta difference of pretest-posttest, both genders in the experimental group significantly increased in all the indexes compared to the control group (p ＜ .05). Conclusion: After a six-week HIIT course that could effectively improve physical fitness (explosive power, agility, and cardiorespiratory fitness) and anthropometry (height, muscle mass, and body fat) in elementary school senior students. We proposed that the HIIT programs in the current study could be applied to physical education courses for multiple benefits on fitness, growth, and weight management in the future curriculum design of physical education.