ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1661237
Physiological profile of the Norwegian Taekwondo (ITF) national team
Provisionally accepted
- Hogskulen pa Vestlandet, Bergen, Norway
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This study aimed to assess the physiological profile of the Norwegian National Taekwondo Team (ITF). Thirty-three athletes (Age = 20.8 ± 4.4), participated in the study, including 19 females (Age = 20.4 ± 3.4) and 14 males (Age = 21.6 ± 5.5). The athletes performed anthropometric and body composition, counter movement jump, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), leg press, brutal bench, and pull-ups tests. A Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANCOVA) was conducted to examine the effects on gender (male, female), experience (junior, senior), and competition level (medallists, non-medallists) on the outcome variables. Athletes demonstrated the following anthropometric and physical characteristics: weight (males: 72.7 ± 11.7 kg; females: 61.7 ± 10.5 kg), height (males: 179.2 ± 5.3 cm; females: 168.9 ± 8.5 cm), body fat (males: 9.5 ± 4.4%; females: 18.6 ± 4.9%), VO₂max (males: 58.8 ± 7.3 ml/kg/min; females: 50.5 ± 4.1 ml/kg/min) brutal bench (males: 15.6 ± 5.7 reps; females: 14.9 ± 8.9 reps), pull-ups (males: 11.4 ± 5.0 reps; females: 13.0 ± 9.3 reps), CMJ (males: 42.1 ± 4.8 cm; females: 31.1 ± 3.3 cm), maximum load (males: 234.0 ± 54.2 kg; females: 168.5 ± 33.6 kg), peak power (males: 1475.6 ± 390.0 W; females: 918.4 ± 162.4 W), and normalized peak power (males: 20.1 ± 2.8 W/kg females: 15.0 ± 1.6 W/kg). No differences were found regarding competition level or experience. While physiological parameters show differences based on gender, they do not discriminate for competition level neither experience. Nevertheless, the Norwegian national team exhibit levels of physical and physiological conditions aligned with other elite athletes in other combat sports. The results provide valuable insights into the physiological levels that elite ITF taekwondo athletes should attain.
Keywords: aerobic capacity, Muscular strength, power, keiser, Taekwondo, ITF
Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 10 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Iversen, Hafstad, Falco and Kristoffersen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Vegard Iversen, viv@hvl.no
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