A Case Study: Resistance Training Effect on Muscle Mass and Body Fat Percentage among Youth Football Players during Fasting Month

Abstract

Fasting months will affect the nutritional intake of football players. They will start fasting from sunrise until sunset and do not even consume water. However, the training session still needs to be conducted to prepare the players for the league. Maintaining their strength and muscle mass still becomes an essential and crucial factor. In that sense, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of a fasting month on resistance training outcomes, specifically on the player's muscle mass and body fat percentage. Twenty-eight youth football players were purposively selected for this study, and they were randomly divided into the control group (CG) (n=14) and the resistance training group (RT) (n=14). Both groups underwent the same cycle of fasting time, including early morning meals, after-sunset dinners, and regular football training sessions. The CG group did not engage in any resistance training program for the study, whereas the RT group completed 65% of 1RM for bench press, plate-loaded leg press, lat pulldown, leg extension, conventional deadlift, barbell shoulder press, squat with calf raise and EZ-curl bar bicep curl exercises. The training program consists of four weeks, three weekly, near sunset, and 12 repetitions with three sets per session. Muscle-fat analysis was conducted using InBody 770 (California, USA), and a mixed design analysis of variance (ANOVA) test interpreted all the data. The results show no significant decrease in muscle mass F(1,26)=24.392, p=.056, p<0.05 for the RT group in pre and post-test assessment and no significant difference F(1,26)=.224, p=.640, p>0.05 was also shown in the pre and post-test assessment on body fat percentage in both groups. The outcome indicates that continuous resistance training in fasting months would eventually hinder the loss rate of muscle mass. The result also implies that resistance training within fasting months among youth football players can assist in maintaining muscle mass and must be embedded with proper nutritional intake to result in better body fat percentage reduction. This study suggests that further investigation with manipulation of training intensity, volume and frequency needs to be conducted to monitor the effect of the resistance training program within a fasting month.