1 VO² Max Comparisons between Division III Offensive Linemen and Other Athletes Maria Bartoletti December 7, 2010 Augsburg College
2 Introduction Offensive linemen are notorious for two things: their size and their strength. The offensive line basically has two jobs: either make a hole for the running back, or protect the quarterback. Over the decades the size of the average lineman has increased tremendously. In the 1930 s the average lineman was 230 pounds. Today, the average offensive lineman stands 6 0 to 6 8 and weighs 260 to 350 pounds (Chase, 2007). There is no doubt that the game of football has changed and will continue to change in the future. The game is being broken down and studied by each individual minute of play and how players performance is affected as the game goes on. Each position has been studied extensively to find which attributes make the best player. Some positions value size, some value strength, some value speed and agility, and almost all value mental ability and reaction. American football, in fact, has been reported to combine the physical qualities of nearly all other sports size, strength, power, speed, agility, and endurance. (Soviet, 1988). Despite all of that, there is no question that no matter the size of the player, the most highly fit and trained athlete will produce the best athletic performance and be able to get the job done most efficiently. A study done on an incredibly successful high school football team in Alabama found that, from a practical standpoint, body composition, strength, and power obviously are important variables related to football performance, but maximal oxygen consumption rates have been characterized as the weak links in the profiles of football players (Williford, 1994). Maximal oxygen uptake (VO² max) has been regarded by the majority of authors as the best indicator of aerobic capacity of an organism, and at the same time, the best indicator of an athlete s physical capacity (Rankovic, 2010). More and more studies are being done on what makes an athlete great, and more and more people are pointing to VO² max as the best indicator of physical fitness
3 status. American football requires a mix of high aerobic and anaerobic abilities. Anaerobic ability is important during actual plays, when an athlete is usually performing to their max capacity. Aerobic ability plays a huge role when it comes to being able to play through until the end of the game without becoming exhausted. Football players of incredible size and strength may be good players on the field, but they will not be useful for the entire game if they have poor aerobic or physical capacity. So logically, the offensive lineman that is the biggest, has the ability to move defensive players out of the way efficiently, is the most intelligent, and has the greatest aerobic capacity would be of the highest value. This study takes a look at the offensive linemen of Augsburg College, a division III college football team with an average winning record. These athletes are not elite, but most have been physically active for a minimum of four years (some have been for longer), so we would assume they are more athletic than the average college student. The hypothesis for this study is that they will all have relatively high VO² max scores (higher than non-athletes), but they will not surpass those of higher caliber or elite athletes. The Augsburg offensive linemen will be compared to other levels of football players (high school, college, and professional) as well as body builders, Olympic weight lifters, power lifters, and shot-putters because it has been reported that these athletes share strong characteristics with offensive linemen, such as body size and composition, strength, and speed (Fahey, 1975). Method Subjects All subjects were members of the Augsburg College football team s offensive line. They all volunteered for this study for no benefit other than receiving their VO² max score for free. There
4 were 10 subjects total, all white males. The average age of each participant was 19.2 years old. The average height was 74.1 inches (6 2.1 ) and the average weight was 260.5 pounds. It would be unfair to use a body mass index chart to find the average BMI of each subject because all of them are overweight, but most of them are very muscular and a BMI chart would not take that into account. Materials Each participant followed the Bruce Protocol test to assess VO² max. A Sports Art Fitness 6320 treadmill was used and a MedGraphics AVO-2000 Metabolic Gas Analysis machine was used to measure the inhaled and exhaled air. The Breeze software was used to determine VO2 max scores. A separate piece of paper was used to record heart rates. The paper also had the speed and incline grade changes for each minute of the test. Procedure Subjects were tested one at a time. The first thing each subject did upon arrival was sign a consent form informing them of the dangers of this study. Once that was signed they were instructed on what the test would involve and what they had to do. They were then given a heart rate monitor strap to wear so their heart rates could be recorded. They were fitted for a nose clip so that they would only breathe through their mouth (so all air could be measured through the mouthpiece). Once the gas analysis machine was calibrated, they were asked to put the mouthpiece in and step on the treadmill to begin the test. For each minute of the test, the incline and speed were increased. Before moving on to each of the next stages they were asked if they could continue with the test or if they needed to stop. Once the subject was ready to stop, he put his hands on the safety railing and the treadmill was slowed down and incline was decreased.
5 The gas analysis machine was shut off and the subject was asked to stay on the treadmill until his heart rate slowed down to below 130 beats per minute. The subject was thanked for his time and given a print out of his score. Subject Time Results VO² Max Max HR Age Height (in) Weight (lbs) 1 8:00 40.5 180 18 72 275 2 8:10 39.2 186 21 70 250 3 9:24 46.3 174 21 78 285 4 9:30 44.1 186 18 79 280 5 10:00 43.1 182 19 75 275 6 10:00 41.9 170 19 72 255 7 10:00 46.5 189 20 74 220 8 11:00 44.9 190 19 74 265 9 11:00 47.1 185 19 73 250 10 11:50 51.3 179 18 74 250 Averages 9:53 44.49 182.1 19.2 74.1 260.5 The average VO² max score for the Augsburg linemen was 44.49 ± 3.55 ml/kg/min. The highest score was 51.3 and the lowest score was 39.2. The VO² max variance is 12.59. Other Levels and Athletes Professional 49.9 +/- 6.6 (Wilmore, 1972) College 55.9 +/- 7.41 (Smith, 1976) High School 49.9 +/- 7.2 (Williford, 1994) Non-Athletes 41.53 (Iaia, 2009) Body Builders 41.5 +/- 14.5 (Fahey, 1975) Power Lifters 49.5 +/- 4.2 (Fahey, 1975) Olympic Weight Lifters 50.7 +/- 6.1 (Fahey, 1975) Shot-putters 42.6 +/- 5.2 (Fahey, 1975)
6 VO² Max Averages 60 55 50 45 40 35 Augsburg O- Linemen Professional College High School Non- Athletes Discussion The VO² max scores of the Augsburg College offensive linemen turned out to be what was expected in the hypothesis. In the results listed above, the Augsburg linemen scored lower than every other level of offensive linemen, including other college linemen. The scores for the college linemen found by Smith and Byrd (1976) were far beyond any score that any Augsburg lineman reached. The only group that the Augsburg linemen scored higher than were the nonathletes, but only by roughly 3 ml/kg/min. In comparison with other sports, the Augsburg linemen scored higher than shot-putters and body builders, but lower than power lifters and Olympic weight lifters. This is most likely due to the amount and type of training that each athlete does. Most body builders probably do little to no cardiovascular training, along with the shot-putters. Power lifters and Olympic weight lifters require a higher athletic ability to perform well in their sports. The average VO ² max score of 44.49 ml/kg/min would put the Augsburg
7 linemen at an average rating based on general scale for men ages 18-25. Only two linemen scored above average, with the rest at average or below average ratings. A big part of the reason for the low scores could be because these measures were taken at the end of the Augsburg football season where the non starters don t practice as much as the starters and all of the linemen have basically been out of training, other than running sprints at the end of some practices. Another reason could be from the linemen just not trying as hard as they could during the VO² max test. It is a very hard test that can be pretty uncomfortable with the mouthpiece and nose clip, and many of the linemen do not enjoy running, so some may have stopped the test early because they just did not want to continue, when they really could have performed better. An idea for a study in the future that would be interesting would be to take pre and post season measures to see if VO² max capacity changes at all throughout the season (and to see how well trained they are when they arrive at training camp). It would also be interesting to compare the Augsburg linemen against other positions from the same team.
8 References Chase, M. (2007, May 22). How to be an nfl lineman. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?how-to-be-an-nfl-lineman&id=575046 Fahey, T., Akka, L., & Rolph, R. (1975). Body composition and VO² max of exceptional weighttrained athletes. Journal of Applied Physiology, 39 (4), 559-561. Iaia, F., Rampini, E., & Bangsbo, J. (2009). High-Intensity Training in Football. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 4, 291-306. Pincivero, D., & Bompa, T. (1997). A Physiological Review of American Football. Sports Medicine, 23 (4), 247-260. Rankovic, G., Mutavdzic, V., Toskic, D., Preljevic, A., Kocig, M., Nedin-Rankovic, G., & Damjanovic, N. (2010). Aerobic capacity as an indicator in different kinds of sports. Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences, 10 (1), 44-48. Smith, D., & Byrd, R. (1976). Body composition, pulmonary function and maximal oxygen consumption of college football players. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 16 (4), 301-308. Soviet Lecture Series 3. (1988). Strength and Conditioning Considerations in American Football. National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal, 10 (2), 70-71. Williford, H., Kirkpatrick, J., Scharff-Olson, M., Blessing, D., & Wang, N. (1994). Physical and Performance Characteristics of Successful High School Football Players. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 22 (6), 859-862. Wilmore, J., Parr, R., & Haskell, W. (1972). Body composition and endurance capacity of professional football players. Journal of Applied Physiology, 33 (5), 564-567.