The Resting Pulmonary Function: a comparison between that of male and female modern dancers


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Agopyan A., Tekin D.

Inauguration BRICSCESS Exercise and Sports Science Conference(BRICSCESS 2017), Santos, Brezilya, 29 Kasım - 02 Aralık 2017, cilt.1, ss.60-61

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Cilt numarası: 1
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Santos
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Brezilya
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.60-61
  • Marmara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Introduction: The influence of physical activity on the development of the respiratory system is a matter for ongoing debate. The intensity and volume of involvement by athletes in sporting activity would appear to determine the extent of strengthening of the inspiratory muscles, with resultant increase in pulmonary functions.  Unquestionably, there are important differences between male and female in the respiratory response to both short-term and long-term exercise. From the available recorded studies, while such gender differences have been highlighted, many basic questions remain unanswered. For example, within the field of athletic performance, gender differences could impact on training and competition strategies. Modern dancers are considered as athletes at certain times. In general, male and female modern dancers adhere to similar technical training regimes, but measurement of their pulmonary function has not been widely investigated.  Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the resting pulmonary function between male and female modern dancers, based on the same level of training.

Methods: Thirty-eight modern dancers (18 male, 20 female) volunteered to participate in this study. Participants were university level modern dancers (age=23.65±3.12 years). Their exercise level (3 days/week, 3 hours/day) and training history (at least 4 years) were similar. All participants were healthy, non-smokers and had no previous history of cardio-pulmonary disease. Participants with less than 80% forced expired volume in one second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio were excluded from this study. All female dancers were tested randomly throughout the menstrual cycle. Basic anthropometric measurements (height and body weight) were obtained from participants. Pulmonary function was assessed by measuring the tidal volume (TV), Maximum Voluntary Ventilation (MVV), Vital Capacity (VC), FVC, FEV1, percent of FEV1 (FEV1%), forced expiratory ratio (FER = FEV1/FVC), peak expiratory flow (PEF), Forced Expiratory Flow between 25% and 75% of Vital Capacity (FEF25–75%) and Expiratory Reserve Volume (ERV).  The measurements were taken with a computerized spirometer (MIR, Spirobank, Italy) in a sitting position, based on recommendations of the American Thoracic Society guidelines. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to assess the significance of the differences between groups. Results were considered significant at p<0.05.

Results & Discussion: Mann-Whitney U-test results revealed significant differences (p<0.05) for values of MVV, VC, FVC, FEV1, PEF, FEF25–75% and ERV between genders. The values for male dancers were higher than female dancers. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the other parameters (TV, FEV1%, FER) measured.

Conclusion: Based on this study data, performance of resting pulmonary function of male and female dancers with the same training level were found to be significantly different. This suggests possible benefits could be achieved from the development of a gender-based dance training program. However, results should be considered as only preliminary and confirmation or otherwise is required by way of future studies based on larger sample size. To fully address questions of gender-based differences in pulmonary performance, future such studies involving modern dancers should consider pulmonary structure and function, during resting and dynamic exercise