The Health Effects of Small-sided Team Handball

Fitness and health effects of 12 weeks of recreational team handball in untrained adult men and women aged 20-30 years"

Adult men and women aged 20-30 years will be recruited to take part in a 12-week intervention with recreational team handball. Half of the participants are men (n=32), who are randomly assigned to a group playing recreational team handball (n=16) and an inactive control group (n=16). The women (n=40) are also divided and assigned to a group with regular participation in recreational team handball (n=20) and an inactive control group (n=20). The training sessions will be offered 2-3 times weekly for 70 minutes per session by a supervised trainer. The sessions involves an injury preventive warm-up and ball exercises for 15 minutes followed by recreational handball on small pitches such as 4 vs 4. A comprehensive testing protocol is conducted before and after the training period. The measurements includes body composition and bone mineralization, blood pressure, resting heart rate, fasting blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol and bone markers. In addition, a number of physical tests which involves fitness level (VO2max), intermittent work, muscle strength and balance will further be conducted. The testing takes place at the University of Copenhagen. The training sessions will also take place at the University of Copenhagen or in a handball club near the University. The study will be approved by the local ethical committee of Copenhagen.

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy women and men from 20-30 years old
• If women, a regular menstrual cycle length (25 to 32 days) with or without use of contraceptives.

Exclusion criteria

• Known familiar diseases
• If been smoking for the last two years before recruitment
• If involved in any regular physical training two years before recruitment
• Women: a peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) higher than 45 mL/min/kg
• Men: a peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) higher than 51 mL/min/kg