AUTHOR=Höög Stefan , Andersson Erik P. 

TITLE=Sex and Age-Group Differences in Strength, Jump, Speed, Flexibility, and Endurance Performances of Swedish Elite Gymnasts Competing in TeamGym

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2021.653503

DOI=10.3389/fspor.2021.653503

ISSN=2624-9367

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Purpose:</bold> To analyze sex and age group differences in strength, jump, speed, flexibility, and endurance performances of TeamGym athletes.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> A total of 91 Swedish elite gymnasts (junior female, <italic>n</italic> = 26, age = 15.4 y; senior female, <italic>n</italic> = 23, age = 20.0 y; junior male, <italic>n</italic> = 19, age = 15.6 y; senior male, <italic>n</italic> = 23, age = 20.6 y) participated in three testing sessions on three separate days. These were: (1) a series of flexibility tests for the lower- and upper-body; (2) strength tests for the lower- and upper-body; and (3) various types of jumps, a 20-m sprint-run, and a 3,000-m run test.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Males were 24% stronger in the back squat one-repetition maximum (relative to body mass) compared to females (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001, <italic>H</italic><sub><italic>g</italic></sub> = 1.35). In the pull-ups and dips, 2.4 and 2.3 times more repetitions were completed by the males compared to the females (both <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001, 0.70 ≤ <italic>R</italic> ≤ 0.77). However, females were similarly strong as males in the hanging sit-ups test (<italic>P</italic> = 0.724). The males jumped 29, 34, 33, and 17% higher in the squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa), and drop jump (DJ), respectively, compared to the females (all <italic>P</italic> ≤ 0.002, 0.14 ≤ <inline-formula><mml:math id="M1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>η</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mo>≤</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula> 0.60). In the 20-m sprint run, males were 4% faster than females (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001, <italic>R</italic> = 0.40). Moreover, the females had significantly better flexibility than the males in the trunk forward bending, front split, and side split tests (all <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001, 0.24 ≤ <inline-formula><mml:math id="M2" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>η</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:math></inline-formula> ≤ 0.54). In the 3,000-m run test, males were 11% faster than females (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001, <inline-formula><mml:math id="M3" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>η</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:math></inline-formula> ≤ 0.54). Compared to junior athletes, seniors performed better in the pull-ups, dips, SJ, CMJ, CMJa, and 20-m sprint-run tests (all <italic>P</italic> ≤ 0.012, 0.31 ≤ <italic>R</italic> ≤ 0.56, 0.16 ≤ <inline-formula><mml:math id="M4" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>η</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:math></inline-formula> ≤ 0.25), with separate within-sex age-group differences (i.e., juniors vs. seniors) that were significant for the males but not for the females in the SJ, CMJ, CMJa, and 20-m sprint-run tests (males: all <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001, 0.67 ≤ <italic>R</italic> ≤ 0.69, 1.37 ≤ <italic>H</italic><sub><italic>g</italic></sub> ≤ 2.01; females: all <italic>P</italic> = 0.298–732).</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> Large sex and age-group differences were observed for most physical performance metrics with specific within-sex age-group differences only observed for male athletes, with male seniors performing better than juniors in the SJ, CMJ, CMJa, and 20-m sprint-run tests.</p>