Fitness Skills of University Students – As Exemplified by Tourism and Recreation and Physiotherapy Students

Abstract

Introduction . Changes in physical fitness of younger generations are a fact and they include most of its components. Young adults, who decide on the specializations of tourism and recreation as well as physical therapy, will in the future undertake tasks in the area of physical education, and the need of proper strength and endurance forming in those students is a result of that. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the level of both of those features in students of both specializations of the University in Toruń.

Material and methods 32 male and 77 female second year students of tourism and recreation were examined, together with 28 male and 52 female first year students of physical therapy. Body height and mass were measured for those students as well as Rohrer index and BMI. A trial of static strength and endurance was realized according to Eurofit Physical Fitness Test Battery. Differences in results of both groups of subjects were evaluated by means of U test.

Results. It was observed that male students of both specializations were characterized by similar values of the studied motoric and morphological determinants, while female physical therapy students were characterized by slightly greater means of morphological features and significantly greater means of fitness trials.

Conclusions. It was concluded that identification of students with their profession by means of motoric and morphological conditioning influences succeeding in their future jobs, while men, as a result of their physiologically higher level of physical fitness, pay less attention than women to its importance in selection of specialization and further realization of their profession.