Effects of Acute Taekwondo Exercise on Antioxidant Enzyme Activities, Serum Total Antioxidant Capacity, and Malondialdehyde Concentration in Adolescent Female Taekwondokas

Regular exercise can alleviate oxidative stress. There are no studies examining changes in this variable as a result of an intense acute taekwondo (TKD) exercise.

We aimed to investigate the effect of one bout of intense TKD exercise on superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in adolescent female taekwondokas.

Ten adolescent female taekwondokas (age: 13.71±2.05 years; bodymass index: 19.75±2.83 kg/m2 ) voluntarily participated in the present study. They performed one bout of intense TKD protocol. Blood samples were obtained before and immediately after exercise. Then, SOD, GPx, CAT, TAC, and MDA were measured using the spectrophotometric method. Plasma volume was corrected using the Dill and Costill equation. Data were analyzed using a paired-sample t test. The significance level was set at P < 0.05.

The results revealed that CAT activity (P = 0.043) and serum TAC level (P = 0.039) significantly increased after TKD exercise. However, no significant change was found in SOD (P = 0.414), GPx activity (P = 0.196), and MDA levels (P = 0.377) immediately after exercise.

Collectively, lipid peroxidation did not occur after one bout of intense TKD exercise in adolescent girls, which may be due to increased TAC levels and the activity of the CAT enzyme.