INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF WET CUPPING APPLICATION ON CERTAIN PERFORMANCE AND BLOOD PARAMETERS OF ATHLETES

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how wet cupping effects performance and certain blood parameters of athletes. The athletes participating in the study (n=23) were divided into control group (CG, n=11) and experimental group (EG, n=12) by using random sample method. The athletes in sample group were selected in accordance with following criteria; age average: 20,36±1,286 year, average training age: 7,45±4,132 year, average stature: 177,82±6,585 cm, average body weight: 74,09±11,476 kg. The same criteria for the athletes in experimental group (EG) (n=11) were as follows; age average: 21,17±2,290 year, average training age: 9,08±3,825 year, average stature: 179,67±8,553 cm, average body weight: 71,25±10,314 kg. Leg force, acceleration, speed, vertical jump and standing long jump values of the participants were measured along with their blood parameters such as WBC, RBC, HGB, PLT and HCT levels. In statistical analyses of the study, arithmetic mean and standard deviation values were used as descriptive statistics, and Shapiro-Wilks was made in order to analyze the normality of distributions. Independent-Sample t-Test was made to determine the difference between the groups and Paired Sample t-Test to determine the difference within each group. Significance level was taken as p<0.05. Consequently, it can be said that wet cupping has a positive effect on leg force, acceleration, vertical jump and Yoyo-1 values of athletes.