Jump gymnastic at school physical education for adolescents and adults: changes and prevalence of success in health-related physical fitness

This study aimed to verify changes and prevalence of success in health-related physical fitness after an intervention with jump gymnastic at physical education classes for adolescents and adults according to gender. Thirty-nine adolescents and adults (20 women) were selected for convenience, aged between 15-61 years old, at a school in Charqueadas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The intervention consisted on 60 Jump gymnastic classes, three times per week in a school semester. The body mass index (BMI); waist circumference (WC); cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF); flexibility and abdominal strength were evaluated. The changes and the prevalence of success were calculated according to specific cutoff points for the individual pre- and post-test variation (D%; mean) and Manova analysis was adopted as comparison test for means variation between gender and variation of this groups at time. BMI have not changed (D = -1.17%, p = 0.123) in women, however it increased (D = 2.07%, p = 0.035) in men. PC have not changed (female: D = 0.71%, p = 0.341, male: D = 1.09%, p = 0.564). Abdominal strength increased (D = 145.47%, p = 0.001) in women but not in men (D = 12.82%, p = 0.411). The flexibility increased similarly in women (D = 16.07%, p = 0.041) and men (D = 17.32%, p = 0.039) and CRF increased only in women (D = 14.32%; p = 0.028). The individual prevalence of success was 41% in flexibility, 33% in CRF, 23% in abdominal strength, 15% in WC and only 10% in BMI. Women had stronger benefits compared to men with the Jump in physical education, mainly in abdominal strength and CRF.