Physiological and Fitness Comparison between Young Japanese and American Males.

Abstract

Abstract. Environmental and cultural aspects are known to influence particular characteristics of an ethnic group and, as such, are partially responsible for distinguishing an ethnic group from others. This study was designed to compare non-athlete young Japanese and American males on a variety of physiological and fitness characteristics in order to locate and quantify the magnitude of any physiological and fitness differences between the two races. Aerobic capacity based upon bicycle ergometer, resting heart rate, and resting blood pressure, vertical jump, grip strength, and flexibility as measured by sit-and-reach, and trunk-and-neck extension tests were obtained for 20 Japanese and 20 American males whose ages ranged between 19 and 25 years. Cardiovascular and aerobic capacity data indicated that the Americans had higher blood pressure (both systolic and diastolic blood pressures) and higher absolute . VO2max than the Japanese. However, the Japanese . had a higher relative VO2max value than the Americans. The Japanese had higher values than those of the Americans in the vertical jump and for trunk-and-neck flexibility. Within the limitation of the present study, it can be concluded that the Japanese had a higher lower extremity power and better flexibility in the trunk-andneck extension compared with the American.(Appl Human Sci, 17 (5): 189-193, 1998) .

Secular Trends in the Physical Fitness of American Youth, Young Adults and Army Recruits

“…Few studies were found on racial difference in muscle strength or muscular endurance and these did not support the present findings. Two studies indicate that the grip strength of Asian men tends to be lower than that of White men (96,144). Further efforts need to be directed at partitioning the Other racial category into appropriate subgroups to determine which racial categories may be displaying higher upper body muscular endurance and why.…”

Análise das diferenças posturais e comparação da flexibilidade muscular em crianças negras, brancas e orientais de 9 a 15 anos de idade

“…A partir das informações mencionadas acima sobre as diferenças posturais e níveis de flexibilidade muscular, existem, na literatura, estudos analisando, comparando e caracterizando a postura e a flexibilidade muscular entre as raças em adultos e adolescentes [8][9][10][11][12]26,27,41 , sendo que em crianças foram realizados somente estudos comparativos do ângulo tibiofemoral entre as raças [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . Observamos a ausência de estudos comparando as diferenças na postura da coluna em função da raça em crianças.…”