Effects of Self-Directed Program on Exercise with Muay Thai Skills on the Development of Physical Fitness in Untrained Adults

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to compare the physical fitness between the experimental group who received the self-directed program on exercise with Muay Thai skills and the control group living a normal life, and 2) to compare the physical fitness of the experimental group before and after receiving the self-directed program on exercise with Muay Thai skills. This was quasi-experimental research. The samples were 60 untrained adults living in Muang Noi Nuea Community and Muang Noi Tai Community.  They were divided equally into the experimental group and the control group: 30 people each. They were  selected by a purposive sampling method. The data collection instruments were a self-directed program on exercise with Muay Thai skills and a physical fitness test. Data were analyzed by mean and standard deviation. The independent sample t-test and the paired-samples t-test were employed for hypothesis testing. The study results were as follows:

            1) After receiving the self-directed program on exercise with Muay Thai skills, the physical fitness of the experimental group in all aspects was better than that of the control group with statistical significance at the .01 level. 2) After receiving the self-directed program on exercise with Muay Thai skills, the physical fitness of the experimental group was better than that of before receiving the intervention with statistical significance at the .01 level. The findings indicate that the self-directed program on exercise with Muay Thai skills can control the behavior of untrained adults to do exercise regularly until their physical fitness can be improved effectively.