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Physical activity and sedentary behavior in amateur sports: master athletes are not free from prolonged sedentary time

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Abstract

Sedentary behavior (SED) and physical activity (PA) are distinct behavioral domains that must be considered before interpreting individual profiles, particularly for amateur athletes which are considered active. The aim was to describe the PA and SED of master amateur runners and footballers, the main individual and team sports. Sixteen male runners and 13 footballers (42 ± 6.9 and 43.9 ± 3.9 years) were monitored for 7 days using triaxial accelerometers (30 Hz). The median (interquartile range) of up to 10 min of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA bouts) was similar among runners and footballers [33.3 (56.0) and 32.5 (47.8) min/day, respectively] and achieved the recommended activity level. Vigorous PA levels were achieved, but were higher for runners than footballers [9.8 (59.5) and 1.6 (3.9) min/day, respectively]. Week-day differences for runners and footballers were found for light [202.0 (139.1) and 261.3 (115.3) min/day, P = 0.001], moderate [47.7 (59.8) and 103.3 (82.7) min/day, P < 0.001] and vigorous PA [9.8 (58.9) and 1.7 (3.9) min/day, P < 0.001]. Athletes present alarming time in bouts of 30-min of sedentary activity on weekdays [202.8 (270.9) and 254.0 (224.3) min/day, P = 0.07]. On the weekends, differences were found in moderate [48.3 (54.9) and 60.8 (89.9) min/day, P = 0.013], MVPA bouts [48.2 (71.4) and 11.3 (44.8) min/day, P < 0.001), and vigorous PA [11.6 (62.4) and 1.3 (4.1) min/day, P < 0.001]. The results of the present study highlight the need to consider the excessive amounts of sedentary behavior in master athletes that cannot be masquerade by adequate PA profiles.

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Acknowledgements

Project NanoSTIMA: Macro-to-Nano Human Sensing: Towards Integrated Multi-modal Health Monitoring and Analytics/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000016, which is financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Quinta de Prados, apartado 202, Vila Real, Portugal

    Juliana Exel, Nuno Mateus, Nuno Leite & Jaime Sampaio

  2. Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, Geron Research Community, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

    Catarina Abrantes

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  1. Juliana Exel
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Correspondence to Juliana Exel.

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Exel, J., Mateus, N., Abrantes, C. et al. Physical activity and sedentary behavior in amateur sports: master athletes are not free from prolonged sedentary time. Sport Sci Health 15, 385–391 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-019-00527-3

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