JONAED

Plyometric training is a form of specialised strength training that uses fast muscular contractions to improve power and speed in sports conditioning by coaches and athletes. Despite its useful role in sports conditioning programme, the information about plyometric training on the athlete’s cardiovascular health have not been established in the literature. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of lower and upper body plyometric training on cardiovascular variables of male athletes in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus. The study was guided by five null hypotheses. Quasi–experimental research design was adopted for the study. All male athletes in Nnewi Campus (Seventy-two) aged 18 to 24 years that measured 18.5 -25kg/m2 in body mass index (BMI) constituted the population of the study. Thirty male athletes volunteered to participate in the study, but only twenty-three completed the study. The volunteered athletes were apparently healthy, physically active and free of any lower and upper extremity bone injuries for past one year and they had no medical or orthopedic injuries that may affect their participation in the study. Ten participants each were purposively assigned to one of the three groups: lower body plyometric training (LBPT), upper body plyometric training (UBPT) and control (C).Training consisted of six plyometric exercises: lower (ankle hops, squat jumps, tuck jumps) and upper body plyometric training (push-ups, medicine ball-chest throws and side throws) with low to moderate intensity. A modern automated blood pressure with monitor measured in mmHg was used to determine the heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and after which the mean arterial pressure (MAP) and rate pressure product (RPP) were calculated from SBP and DBP of male university athletes. The data were collated and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0.The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that athletes who were trained using LBPT and UBPT had reduced HR, SBP, DBP, MAP and RPP better than the control group. The findings also showed that athletes who were trained using LBPT and UBPT indicated no significant differences following ten weeks plyometric training and those in the control group in all the cardiovascular variables. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that coaches should include both LBPT and UBPT as part of athletes’ overall training programme of university athletes to optimise performance as well as reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and promotes good healthy lifestyle.