Exercise characteristics of physical education trainee teachers in Singapore and the validity of field aerobic and anaerobic performance tests

Abstract

The study provides exercise data on the aerobic (shuttle-run test) and anaerobic (stair-run test) field performances of physical education trainee teachers in Singapore and validity data on the field performance tests. Fifty subjects (22 female and 28 male) participated in the study. Male subjects were significantly (P<0.05) older (26.2±3.1 y versus 23.1±1.4 y), taller (1.71±0.07 m versus 1.61±0.06 m), heavier (66.2±11.3 kg versus 51.4±5.1 kg) and had lower sum of four-site skinfolds (29±11 mm versus 38±12 mm) than the female subjects. They also had greater predicted oxygen uptake peak (48±5 versus 39±4 ml/kg body mass/min, P<0.05; ES=2.0) and peak power (16.8±2.6 versus 12.9±1.3 W/kg body mass, P<0.05; ES=2.0) than the female subjects. Differences in exercise performances were largely attributed to the differences in body composition between the sexes. The shuttle-run test and the stair-run test were highly correlated with the treadmill laboratory test (r=0.89, P<0.05) and the Wingate Anaerobic Test (r=0.77, P<0.05), respectively. Aerobic field performance was not correlated with anaerobic field performance (r=-0.1 for male, r=0.3 for female, both P>0.05). This study ameliorates the paucity of exercise data on PE trainee teachers in Singapore, and confirms the validity of field performance tests in assessing the exercise performance in this cohort of subjects.