European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aerobic endurance training and circuit training program on cardiovascular endurance among junior archers. The study involved 21 junior archers (age= 15.0 ± 1.7 years) both from recurve and compound division of Terangganu and Penang State’s team. The sample study was randomly divided into three groups: Aerobic Endurance Training group (AET; n=7), Circuit Training group (CT, n=7) and Control group (CON, n=7). Baselines data on height, body mass (kg), body mass index (BMI), percentage body fat (%), cardiovascular endurance (20m Endurance Shuttle Run Test) and VO2 max (maximal oxygen uptake) were collected. The aerobic endurance training program is jogging for 2km in week 1-4, 3km in week 5-8, and 4km in week 9-12. Meanwhile, for the circuit training program included one circuit of ten stations of 30/60 seconds of work/rest interval with two cycles in week 1-4, 40/60 seconds of work/rest interval with three cycles in week 5-8, and 50/90 seconds of work/rest interval with four cycles in week 9-12. Both training program were performed two times per week during evening after archery training routine. Data were analyzed using mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA). Statistical significance level was set at 0.05. The result show that after 12 weeks of a training program, cardiovascular endurance and VO2 max increased significantly in the CT Group (p < 0.05), while for the AET Group revealed significant interactions after week 1-4 and week 9-12 of training and significant increase was not observed in the CON Group (p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that the circuit training linearly improved cardiovascular endurance and VO2 max of the study subjects throughout theintervention. This training program may be used as a guideline for selecting a set of exercise in their training routine to improve cardiovascular fitness among archers.