ABSTRACT
This study was carried to assess the effect of jogging body composition and cardiorespiratory functions of obese and non-obese adolescents in Numan, Adamawa state. Obesity is a health hazard of epidemic proportion in most developed and developing countries around the world and in Nigeria in recent years. World Health Organization estimated that 35% of adult populations in industrialized and developing nations are obese and Nigerian Health care system is rated one of the lowest five in the world. Research design, population, sample and sampling techniques, research instruments, procedure for data collection, training protocol, and statistical techniques were used as methodology in this study. The population for this study comprised of 570 male and female students of Junior Secondary Schools in Numan metropolis. Using the stratified sampling technique, 88 students were screened and a total of 80 students successfully completed the training programme by gender and ages of 12, 13, 14 and 15 years. Data collected from the pre, mid, and post training programmes, were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) at the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and standard error of means was used to analyse the body composition and cardiorespiratory variables. The repeated measure ANOVA 16.0 version was used to analyse the data to determine the effect of jogging on the subject body composition and cardiorespiratory variables, and the t-test was used to analyze the data for gender. The findings revealed that regular jogging had significant effect on body composition variables (%BF of obese males). Regular jogging had significant effect on cardiorespiratory variables of obese and non-obese male and female adolescents in Numan Metropolis of Adamawa State, Nigeria. From the results obtained, the researcher came up with the recommendations which if adhered to will help alleviate or minimize obesity. Physical Education for children already in existence in school curriculum should be seriously re-emphasized and stressed. Regular assessment of physical fitness status of adolescents in Nigerian schools by Exercise Scientist should be emphasized so as to be able to prescribe exercise programmes to meet fitness needs and standard.