Sports Medicine and Fitness

Contradictory outcomes on effects of exercise on immune system and lack of research on long-term effects of football on immune system along with popularity of sport in Saudi Arabia motivated authors to examine the effects of four a side recreational football on serum immunoglobulin in untrained males. 27 male students from King Fahd university of Petroleum & Minerals with mean age 18.75 yrs were randomized into intervention (n = 8) and control group (n = 15). Three subjects from control group didn’t report for post-test. Intervention group played recreational football for 16 weeks. Football sessions were conducted on 40x30m outdoor artificial pitch. Training sessions were organized twice a week. Each session was divided into two halves of 15 minutes with 5 minute recovery. Heart rate in intervention group was monitored during all football sessions using Polar FT7. Control group subjects followed their regular routine. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to find difference between two groups after 16 weeks of football. Level of significance was set at .05. One way ANCOVA revealed significant differences between intervention and control groups after 16 weeks of recreation football in IgG (F 1, 17 = 6.47, p = 0.021). A significant change was also observed in IgM values between intervention and control group (F 1, 17 = 6.71, p = .019). However, no significant change was seen in IgA (F 1, 17 = .103, p = .752) between intervention and control groups after 16 weeks of recreation football. Our results were mixed and contradictory. Serum IgG increased significantly in intervention group after 16 weeks of vigorous football training (average heart rate 169.44 b\min), while serum IgM was decreased significantly after 16 weeks in the intervention group, and no change was observed in serum IgA. The long and vigorous training makes the immune system weak while short

and mild strengthen it.