Affiliations: Laboratory for Therapeutic Sciences, Kinesiology and Exercise Sciences Department, University of Hawai’i, Hilo, HI, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: O. Atalağ, Laboratory for Therapeutic Sciences, Kinesiology and Exercise Sciences Department, University of Hawai’i, Hilo, HI, USA. Tel.: +1 808 365 27 13; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Basketball players playing for the University of Hawai’i Hilo are subjected to well above normal physiological and psychogenic stressors with their exposure to significant amounts of easterly-bound air travel that include time zone and seasonal changes throughout one season. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a basketball season on physiological, anthropometrical, biometric markers, strength and power of men’s collegiate basketball team who play their away matches after a relatively long (up to 6 h) eastward flight. METHODS: Thirty-six men collegiate basketball players and a control group of thirty-seven university students, were included in this study. Measurements were commenced at the beginning of the season and concluded immediately post-season. RESULTS: Post-season, players presented with significant gains for resting levels of salivary cortisol; significant gains in visceral trunk fat, total body fat percent or body weight, in resting heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure; and diminishment in leg muscle isokinetic force, most noticeably in knee flexion strength. Vertical jump height also decreased significantly post-season. These changes were not found in the control group. CONCLUSION: A flight-travel-heavy basketball season resulted in broad-spectrum declinations in variables related to overall health and well-being in men collegiate basketball players. It is concluded that the prolonged intermittent stress of such a season resulted in measureable stress such as increased cortisol levels, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and selective increase in visceral trunk fat, total percent body fat thus total body weight.
Keywords: Basketball season, body composition, chronobiology, cortisol, waist-to-hip ratio
