Physiological profile of handball players

Background. The purpose of this study was to determine the physiological pr ofile of handball players compared to sprinters, endurance trained and untr ained subjects. Methods. Forty-six subjects aged between 19 and 28 years took part in this study: 10 were national handball players (NHB); 7 were international handba ll players (IHB), 11 were sprint trained subjects (ST); 8 were endurance tr ained subjects (ET); and 10 were untrained subjects (UT). They performed an incremental treadmill test to determine the maximal oxygen uptake ((V) ove r dot O-2max), and a Wingate anaerobic test (WanT) to determine maximal pow er (W-max). Plasma lactate (La) concentration was measured 5 minutes after the end of the Wingate-test. Results. The (V) over dot O-2max of NHB was similar to that of the IHB and ST athletes but higher than that of the untrained and lower than the endura nce trained athletes. Values for (W) over dot (max) were similar in the IHB and NHB groups and very close to the sprinters. When normalized for body m ass or to lean body mass, W-max was greater in handball players when compar ed to untrained or endurance trained subjects. Lactate values were in the s ame range in the NHB, IHB and ST groups and were statistically higher in th e NHB and IHB groups than in the UT or ET groups. Conclusions. The results suggest that the anaerobic metabolism seems to be important for the handball players similarly to sprinters. Since handball i s known as a sport with typically short exercise periods of high intensity alternating with rests, anaerobic metabolism appears then to be highly rele vant to performance.