UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Sedentary behaviour among elite professional footballers: Health and performance implications

Hamer, M; Weiler, R; Aggio, D; Taylor, T; Kumar, B; (2015) Sedentary behaviour among elite professional footballers: Health and performance implications. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine , 1 , Article e000023. 10.1136/bmjsem-2015-000023. Green open access

[thumbnail of BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med-2015-Weiler-.pdf]
Preview
Text
BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med-2015-Weiler-.pdf

Download (849kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: Elite athletes should have little concern about meeting recommended guidelines on physical activity. However, sedentary behaviour is considered a health risk independent of physical activity, and is recognised in public health guidelines advising against prolonged sedentary time. There has been very little research on athletes’ physical activity behaviour outside elite sport. Methods: Given health and performance links, we investigated in-season post-training activity levels in 28 elite professional footballers during the English Premiership season. Players volunteered to wear a triaxial wrist accelerometer for 1 week, removing it only for training and matches. In total, 25 players met the inclusion criteria for analysis. Players recorded on average 632.6 min wear time p/day during the post-training period (SD±52.9) for a mean of 3.8 days (SD±1.5). Results: On average, players recorded 76.2 min p/day (SD±28.8) of moderate or vigorous activity post-training. The majority (79%) of post-training time was spent in sedentary activities (500.6 min per day±59.0). Conclusions: Professional footballers are alarmingly sedentary in their leisure time, and comparatively more so than non-athletic groups of a similar age and older. This raises questions over optimum recovery and performance, as well as long-term health and cardiovascular risk. Worryingly, retirement from elite sport is likely to further imbalance activity and sedentary behaviour. Promoting regular periodic light to moderate leisure time activity could be beneficial. Further research and provision of education and support for players is required in this area.

Type: Article
Title: Sedentary behaviour among elite professional footballers: Health and performance implications
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1136/bmjsem-2015-000023
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2015-000023
Language: English
Additional information: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1472481
Downloads since deposit
107Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item