EFFECTS OF TWELVE WEEKS CIRCUIT TRAINING PROGRAM ON PHYSICAL FITNESS OF MERAWI SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of circuit training on cardio respiratory
fitness, flexibility and speed variables. The design of this research was experimental method.
Thirty male students of Merawi secondary school aged 15-16 years had divided randomly into
2 equal groups. Both the exercise group (n = 15) and control group (n = 15) participated in
the typical 1 classes of 40-minute Physical education per week in schools, but only
participated in additional 2 sessions per week of 40 minutes per session of exercise training,
which comprised as jumping jack, wall sit, push up, abdominal crunch, squat, triceps dips,
jumping rope, side lifts, side plank, step up, lung and plank. Both groups had taken pre and
post-testing and all the subjects participated in physical fitness tests: cardio respiratory
fitness was measured using 12 minute run and flexibility was measured using sit and reach
test and speed was by 60 meter speed test. The collected data was analyzed using statistical
method Analysis of paired t-test with level of significant 0.05. The results showed circuit
training significantly improved cardio respiratory fitness, flexibility and speed in at p>0.05
but in no significant change was observed in all the variables. Therefore, this research
confirmed as circuit training could improve the cardiovascular, flexibility and speed of high
school students. Hence the allocated physical education period in Ethiopian education system
is very low and high school students should get additional times to improve their fitness and
health.