Characterization of football: Distance covered, VO2max and body fat percentage of football players: Systematic review

Abstract

Purpose: to demonstrate the VO2max and the fat percentage of the athlete, as well as the physiological load of the footballthrough the distance covered. Methodology: a systematic revision was used as the methodology. The results: The average of the ratio of rest –low-intensity activities –high-intensity activities is 3:16:1, suggesting that the biggest part of the energetic demand is aerobic, however due to intermittent activities, it is important to have an harmonic development between aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms. The amount of AGL increases during a footballmatch, the depletion of glycogen throughout the game is excessively high, the supplies of phosphocreatine provide a considerable amount of the energy necessary for the short-lived high-intensity activity and the amino acids serve as an auxiliary energy source. The VO2max and the LAN are important factors for the body to tolerate the long duration of the game, the amounts of VO2max found were between 52,67ml.kg.min-¹ and 63,75ml.kg.min-¹, and the amounts of vLAN were between 12,66km/h and 14,8km/h. The fat excess is and extra weight, that compromises the physical performance, the values found for the fat percentage were between 7,3% and 12,6%. The distance covered transmits the general idea of the physiological load applied by the player; the values found were between 8638m and 11000m. The efficiency of the athletes can be better demonstrated by the distance covered at a high speed, the values found were between 437m and 690m. Conclusion: a greater knowledge about the motor and physiological specificities of the sport will ease and optimize the physical periodization, besides improving the specificity of the daily training.