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. 2022 May 24;19(11):6394.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116394.

Puberal and Adolescent Horse Riders' Fitness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Effects of Training Restrictions on Health-Related and Functional Motor Abilities

Sabrina Demarie  1 , Emanuele Chirico  1 , Cecilia Bratta  2 , Cristina Cortis  2
Affiliations

Puberal and Adolescent Horse Riders' Fitness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Effects of Training Restrictions on Health-Related and Functional Motor Abilities

Sabrina Demarie et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyse the fitness level of young horse riders before and after 12 weeks of training restrictions instituted due to the COVID-19 emergency. Anthropometrical measure assessment and an eight-items fitness test battery were administered to 61 puberal and adolescent female amateur horse riders. Subjects were evaluated within 3 weeks before (pre-tests) the period of training restrictions and on the first day of normal training after it (post-tests). Post-test results showed significant increases in body weight (Z: −1.732; p value: 0.001; ES: −0.157) and BMI (F: 9.918; p value: 0.003; ES: 0.146), whilst the performance in hand grip and abdominal strength, hip mobility, and 10 × 5 m Shuttle and Cooper 12 min tests’ outcomes significantly decreased (F: 29.779; p value: 0.001 F: 29.779; p value: 0.001 F: 29.779; p value: 0.001 F: 29.779; p value: 0.001 F: 29.779; p value: 0.001, respectively). Correlation analysis revealed that riders’ experience was significantly correlated with hand grip (p < 0.01), leg strength (p < 0.01), hip mobility (p < 0.05), and 5 × 10 m Shuttle (p < 0.01) and the Cooper 12 min (p < 0.01) test results. It could be suggested that equestrian activities could produce a higher fitness level in puberal and adolescent riders, whilst home-based, unsupervised, and unattentively planned training during the twelve weeks of training restrictions might be insufficient to maintain it.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; adolescent fitness; horse riding; outdoor sport; young athletes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Training and test sessions timeline.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Description of the home based training sessions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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