Assessment of lifestyle of American football players training in Poland

Abstract

Introduction In recent years, American football has gained a wide range of supporters in Poland and the number of people regularly training is growing. With the increasing curiosity about American football, many questions are asked about the sport and the people training it, especially regarding the lifestyle of players. Aim The aim of the study was to determine the lifestyle of American football players with particular emphasis on the assessment of health behavior and health risk determinants. Material and method The study authors used a questionnaire in an electronic form sent out to the leaders of American football teams in Poland. The study included 400 people - members of sports clubs. The statistical method was the Chi square test. The adopted level of significance was p <0.05. Results Among the respondents, 82% (327 people) assessed their physical fitness as good or very good. Evaluation of physical fitness is strongly correlated with the age of the respondent. Athletes to 30 years of age much better assessed their efficient than older respondents (Chi2 = 150.3032; p = 0.0000). More than half - 214 football players (54%) admitted that they do not use diet supplements. The remaining part - 186 respondents (47%) - answered in the affirmative. The use of dietary supplements declares a small percentage of the youngest athletes (38%) and 100% of the athletes above 36 years of age F (Chi2 = 51.8212, p = 0.0000). In addition, 96% of the respondents (384 people) regularly practiced other physical exercises besides training football. Conclusion People regularly involved in sports have a noticeable tendency to attach importance to the rational mode of life, which manifests itself in the tendency to regular meals, or a significant reduction in the use of stimulants. This may result in being less prone to many diseases.