ABSTRACT
Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 16.1 INTRODUCTION Taekwondo was recognized as an Olympic sport in the 2000 Sidney Olympic games. Taekwondo requires both anaerobic and aerobic capabilities and fights are characterized by discontinious, explosive, rapid movements performed mainly by the lower part of the athlete's body. Very little is known about the involvement of adolescent male and female athletes in Taekwondo, and about their energy demands and endocrine responses during training and competition. Understanding of the physiological demands and hormonal responses of athletes to a single exercise, during longer training periods and during competition plays a key role in the development of a sport-specific conditioning program. Recent reports suggest that exercise may lead to a simultaneous increase of both anabolic and catabolic mediators (Eliakim et al., 2005, Nemet et al., 2002). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the hormonal responses during a fighting simulation day in elite, national team level, adolescent, male and female, taekwondo athletes. We hypothesized that the fighting simulation day will be associated with increases in the anabolic hormones IGF-I and testosterone levels, and the catabolic hormone cortisol. 16.2 METHODS Twenty athletes (10 boys, 10 girls; mean age: 14.4 ± 1.0 y.o.) who belong to the "Golden Hope" Israeli taekwondo project participated in the study. Participants train 1.5 hours per day, 5 days a week, and had a training experience of 4 – 7 years. The study was performed prior to the competition season, at peak training level.
