Physical fitness of elite women's rugby union players over a ...
Physical fitness of elite women's rugby union players over a ...
Physical fitness of elite women's rugby union players over a ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
insufficient rest prior to the sprint test could be the contributing factors for the non-positive<br />
result.<br />
2.5.3 Muscle Strength<br />
An investigation by Granados et al. (2004) on the changes in upper and lower body strength<br />
during a female competitive field hockey season, reported no changes in upper and lower<br />
body strength, although the athletes were stronger during pre-season and in-season compared<br />
with post-season. This is consistent with findings by Baker (2001b), whereby pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
<strong>rugby</strong> league <strong>players</strong> maintained upper and lower body strength in both <strong>elite</strong> and amateur<br />
<strong>rugby</strong> league <strong>players</strong> throughout a competition season. It has been suggested that a lack <strong>of</strong><br />
strength gains in experienced athletes could be due to their greater strength training<br />
background (Baker, 2001b; Baker & Newton, 2006), concurrent training (Kraemer et al.,<br />
2004) and a decrease in resistance training volume (Argus et al., 2009; Koutedakis, 1995)<br />
2.5.4 Aerobic Fitness<br />
National male <strong>rugby</strong> <strong>players</strong> may exhibit significant increase in aerobic <strong>fitness</strong> during the<br />
preparatory phase <strong>of</strong> the season (Holmyard & Hazeldine, 1993; Gabbett, 2005a; Tong &<br />
Mayes, 1995) and no significant changes in aerobic power in the later part <strong>of</strong> the season<br />
(Holmyard & Hazeldine, 1993; Gabbett, 2005a). However, it has also been suggested the there<br />
is no significant change in aerobic <strong>fitness</strong> <strong>of</strong> college female field hockey <strong>players</strong> <strong>over</strong> the<br />
entire season Astorino et al., (2004). The improvement in the aerobic endurance <strong>of</strong> National<br />
42