Abstract:
Despite evidence that engagements in training methods have physical fitness gains, millions of Ghanaians seem to practice sedentary lifestyles. In order to effect change, it is very important that Physical Education teachers include fartlek as part of routine health maintenance for their students. Using the one-group pre-test post-test repeated measures pre-experimental design, this study investigated the effects of nine-week fartlek training on health-related fitness of Adidome senior high school students. Forty-eight students were selected for the study using simple random sampling (without replacement) technique. A researcher-generated data summary sheet was used to collect data and the American Alliance for Health, Physical, Education, Recreation and Dance functional fitness test was designed to measure body composition, muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility and muscular endurance. Two hypotheses were tested with independent samples t-test, and a paired sample t-test, all at 95% confidence level. There was statistically significant difference in all the Health-Related Fitness components of the students of Adidome SHS after the 9-week fartlek training programme. This reflected in the t-test values obtained and interpreted. There was statistically significant difference in all the health-related fitness components between the male and female students of Adidome SHS after the 9-week fartlek training activities. The mean difference indicated that the male students had improved Health-Related Fitness levels than the female students. It was recommended that physical education and sports teachers should adopt the fartlek training protocols. Female students should be encourage to participate fully in training programmes to also improve their Health-Related Fitness components.
