Effects of low vs moderate dose of recreational football on cardiovascular risk factors

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of recreational football performed once (LOW) vs. twice (MOD) a week on cardiovascular risk factors in healthy, sedentary men. Body composition, resting blood pressure, blood lipid profile and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) were measured at baseline, after a 12-week control and training period, using an interrupted time series study (study 1, n=18: n=8, LOW and n=10, MOD) nested in a randomised parallel trial (study 2, n=34: n=18 LOW and n=16 MOD). After the intervention in the study 1, LDL-Cholesterol (-12.3 mg•dL-1 [-22.7 to -2.0]) and VO2max (4.5 ml•kg-¹•min-¹ [1.2 to 7.8 ]) changed in LOW whereas differences were found in weight (-2.1 kg [-3.7 to -0.4]), BMI (-0.7 kg•m-2 [-1.2 to -0.1]), total cholesterol (-22.2 mg•dL-1 [-36.0 to -8.4]), no-HDL-cholesterol (-17.5 mg•dL-1 [-30.5 to -4.5]), LDL-cholesterol (-14.9 mg•dL-1 [-23.6 to -6.2]) and VO2max (5.7 ml•kg-¹•min-¹ [2.8 to 8.6]) in MOD. Study 2 showed no evidence of differences between groups. Our results therefore, suggest positive health effects of recreational football even when performed at low frequency as it can happen in real context.