ABSTRACT
Inactivity and poor cardiopulmonary fitness are crucial problems affecting a growing number of adolescents globally. Research evidence shows that there is a tendency among adolescents to participate in less Physical Education programs in schools and in after school physical activities in many developing countries of the world as Nigeria. In recent years, jogging has become popular as a way of staying physically fit. In this study, a 12 weeks jogging programme of 30 - 60 minutes on three alternate days a week (Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays) was conducted involving overweight adolescents of Kaduna metropolis, Kaduna State Nigeria. A stratified sampling technique was used to select twenty (20) each of male and female overweight adolescents (13 to 16 years) with BMI between 25.0 - 29.9ml.kg.m2 who served as sample for this study. Anthropometric and cardiopulmonary measurements were taken at baseline and after 12 weeks of training (post training). One group (pretest post- test) research design was used because, the pre-test value of cardiopulmonary variables of the overweight adolescents were measured at baseline (0 weeks) and after 12 weeks of jogging program. The Cooper 12 minute run test was used to infer V02 max, the resting heart rate and resting blood pressure were determined through the use of a Omron digital sphygmomanometer while the pulmonary variables were measured using the Spirobank G device by MIR, Italy. The Borg?s rating scale was used to monitor the perceived intensity of the training programme. The descriptive statistics of means, standard deviation, and standard error of means was used to analyze the physical characteristics and raw scores of the variables. The student t-test was used to analyze the effect of the effect of the training programme on the variables. Decision to reject or retain the null hypotheses was at 0.05 alpha level. The study found significant effect of the training program on V02max, forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR). While no significant effect was found for vital capacity (VC). It was recommended that children should be encouraged to participate in regular physical activity programs in order to improve the cardiopulmonary functions.