The effects of strength training on the body composition and psychomotor and cognitive skills of the sports high school students

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ten-weeks strength training on body composition and psychomotor and cognitive skills of the sports high school students aged 15-17 years. Material and Method: All the total 40 male students of the of two divisions of the 10th class of Manisa Sports High School were enrolled the study. 10A divison (20 male students) was determined as the test group and the 10B division (20 male students) was determined as the control group randomly. The body composition analysis was applied to all the students from the test and control groups and their psychomotor and cognitive skills were measured as preliminary test. After preliminary test, 10-weeks strength training program was implemented to the test group; control group continued to their normal school life, they did not practice additional strength training. At the end of the study (after 10 weeks) body composition and psychomotor and cognitive skills of the students at the test and control groups were determined again as the last test. The machine called TANİTA TBF 300 was used for analysis of body composition, a tape was used for circumferential measurements and a psychometric test system based on computer named Vienna Test System that was used for measuring cognitive and psychomotor skills. Data were analyzed at SPSS 15.0 computer statistical package by using Mann Whitney U test (among groups), Wilcoxon (in group) and Chi-Square test. Results: The continuous attention ability, reaction velocity, the power of using mental capacity, distance estimation ability, hand-arm coordination, wrist-finger velocity, hand-arm stability, basal metabolism rate, lean body weight, body water mass, and arm circumference length were found statistically significantly higher in the test group than control group Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was determined that strenght training had favourable effects on the body composition, cognitive and psychomotor skills of the students of Sports High School. Key Words: strenght training, psychometric, psychomotor skill, cognitive skill, body composition,