Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of circuit training on selected health-related physical fitness of 2nd-year sport science students at Ambo University, Ethiopia. The quasi-experimental research design was used in this study. For this study, all 39 students were considered as a sample with 22 males and 17 females by using the stratification sampling technique. Among 39 students, 19 of them were experimental groups (EG, n=19) while the other 20 were considered as the control group (CG, n=20) using a simple random sampling technique. The age of subjects was ranged from 19-22. The EG of the study received a supervised training program for 12 weeks and 3 days per week for 60 – 65 minutes per session and CG did not receive the additional training which was designed for this study. The variables selected for this study were: Muscular endurance, muscular strength, and flexibility with their tests of push-up, wall squat and sit and reach test. Tests were taken two times at pre-test and post-training. In this study, exercise was done with orientations, instructions, and supervision by the researcher and assistants. Data were analyzed by paired sample t-test and independent sample t-test. After the 12-week training program, the muscular endurance, muscular strength, and flexibility of the students are increased significantly in the experimental group (p < .05). The respective values did not change in the control group (p > .05). The results showed that the circuit training program was effective to increase and maintain muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility of the students. The present study indicated that 12-weeks of well-designed physical fitness training enhanced the performance of sport science students at Ambo University. Therefore, scientific-based training should be incorporated into the sports science curriculum training program to maximize the ability of the athletes.

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