How safe is recreational soccer playing as a health enhancing physical activity for apparently healthy adults in Maiduguri, Nigeria?

Abstract

Soccer is a competitive sport, but its suitability as a recreational health enhancing physical activity has not been explored among adults in Nigeria. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the cardiovascular responses and changes in rating of perceived exertion (RPE) following recreational soccer game among amateur soccer players. Method: Sixtyseven apparently healthy young men conveniently selected from three non-professional football clubs in Maiduguri participated in the study. The participants were pre-screened for any cardiovascular ailment before engaging in recreational soccer playing for a total of 30 minutes. Participants' base line cardiovascular measurement and RPE were taken before and after the soccer session. Descriptive statistic of mean was used to summarize physical characteristic of the participants and one-way repeated measures Analysis of Variance were used to compare the cardiovascular parameters of the subjects at rest, after soccer and into recoveries. Results: The mean age and body mass index of the participants were 23±4.3 years and 19.5±2.6 kg/m respectively. The result shows significant heightened heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP) and RPE immediately following soccer playing by 67.4 ± 19.9 bpm, 19.6 ± 10.6 mmHg, 19.1 ± 14.9 mmHg and 9.2 ± 2.3, respectively. It also shows significantly (p<0.05) higher derived values including mean arterial pressure (MAP) and rate pressure product (RPP) after soccer playing compared to the baseline resting values. HR and RPP were still higher than the baseline values eight minutes into recovery, while SBP, DBP, MAP six minutes into recovery were comparable to the baseline value and were even lower than the baseline values eight minutes into recovery. Conclusion: This study found heightened cardiovascular response and RPE after 30 minutes of soccer playing among non-professional soccer players in Maiduguri. The finding suggests that soccer playing may be too strenuous physical activity to be recommended for meeting the physical activity requirements for health enhancing benefits among apparently