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Body Composition, Aerobic Fitness, Isokinetic Profile, and Vertical Jump Ability in Elite Male and Female Volleyball and Beach Volleyball Players

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A Correction to this article was published on 09 December 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to compare the physical attributes of male and female Volleyball and Beach Volleyball athletes.

Methods

Fifty-five athletes from Volleyball (Male, n = 19, age 27.3 ± 6.1 years, body mass 93.2 ± 9.9 kg, and height 196.8 ± 7.4 cm and Female, n = 16, age 28.0 ± 5.6 years, body mass 76.9 ± 8.8 kg, and height 179.9 ± 5.8 cm) and Beach Volleyball (Male, n = 10, age 26.8 ± 3.4 years, body mass 92.9 ± 9.9 kg, and height 195.3 ± 7.9 cm and Female, n= 10, age 31.1 ± 6.2 years, body mass 74.6 ± 8.5 kg, and height 180.9 ± 6.0 cm) participated in the study. All tests were performed in a single visit to the laboratory in the following order: body composition, vertical jump (squat and countermovement jump), isokinetic (knees and shoulders), and cardiopulmonary exercise testing. All variables were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA (Sex and Sport factors) for independent groups.

Results

Beach Volleyball athletes presented lower body fat (P = 0.03; ES = 0.32) and higher maximal cardiorespiratory variables (VO2, HR, and vVO2max). Only flexion bilateral difference (knee) at 60°/s was affected by sex (P = 0.002; ES = 0.63). For shoulders, only dominant external/internal rotation ratio presented a significant interaction for sport and sex (P = 0.05; ES = 0.28). Regarding vertical jumps, Volleyball male players presented a greater elastic index than BV male players (P = 0.002, ES = 0.67).

Conclusion

Beach Volleyball players are thinner and have better cardiorespiratory fitness than Volleyball players. Also, they presented less use of elastic properties for vertical jumping and have a greater muscle imbalance in the hamstrings than Volleyball players.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Change history

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Acknowledgements

We thank all athletes who participated in the study and its staff for supporting the data collection.

Funding

The study was supported by the Brazil Olympic Committee and the Brazilian Funding Authority for Studies and Projects (FINEP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Olympic Laboratory, Brazil Olympic Committee, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Raul Freire, Matheus Hausen & Alex Itaborahy

  2. Laboratory of Biomechanics and Motor Behavior, Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Rio de Janeiro State University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Glauber Pereira

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  1. Raul Freire
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  2. Matheus Hausen
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Contributions

Conceptualization: RF; methodology: RF and MH; formal analysis: RF and MH; data curation: RF, GP, and MH; writing—original draft preparation: RF; writing—review and editing: RF, MH, GP, and AI; supervision: AI.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raul Freire.

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Competing Interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the results are reported honestly and without inappropriate data manipulation. They also declare no conflicts of interest. The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Health Secretariat and conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki (revision of 2013).

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The original online version of this article was revised: We made minor changes to the text to improve readability. We inserted some missing words in the text, corrected the order of an anatomical structure, and adjusted a few measurement units.

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Freire, R., Hausen, M., Pereira, G. et al. Body Composition, Aerobic Fitness, Isokinetic Profile, and Vertical Jump Ability in Elite Male and Female Volleyball and Beach Volleyball Players. J. of SCI. IN SPORT AND EXERCISE 5, 385–395 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42978-022-00192-y

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