Hip-hop is a cultural movement, that has evolved to such an extent that it is impossible to define it as a single genre, as it captures many styles, developed within hip-hop or taken from other dance genres. The complexity of choreographies is increasing and at the same time the requirements for physical condition are higher, which leads to a greater number and greater intensity of training. In order to reduce the risk of muscle and joint injuries, at the expense of exhaustion and fatigue, it is essential that dancers understand the importance of diet and dietary supplements and are able to use them appropriately in their everyday life.
The purpose of this following study is to analyse the frequency of food supplements in the daily diet of hip-hop dancers and to figure out what significance they attach to them. We also wanted to highlight the problem in lack of nutritional knowledge and to determine if this affects the body composition of dancers.
The sample consisted of 114 hip-hop dancers from seven leading Slovene dance schools, average age 17,2 ± 2,2 let, participating in adult categories under the auspices of the Plesna zveza Slovenije (PZS) and the International Dance Organization (IDO). In the study, we used an anonymous questionnaire containing basic information about the dancer, followed by questions about knowledge of food supplements, how they are used, and knowledge of nutrituion and doping. Body composition was analyzed by bioelectrical impendance InBody 720 based on tetrapolar 6 punctional measurement with magnetic impendance (Biospace Co., Ltd). The data was statistically processed using the SPSS statistical software, 23.0.0 for Mac OS X.
We established that less than half of the surveyed dancers consume nutritional supplements. The use of food supplements is more common among more successful dancers. Our assumptions about poor knowledge of nutritional supplements have proven to be correct, as the knowledge of hip-hop dancers, regardless of performance ranking, is still lower compared to other sports disciplines. We also found out that dancers overestimate their knowledge. Comparison of physical characteristics with regardless of usage and knowledge of nutrition and dietary supplements did not show statistically significant differences.
We think, that some interventional programs about substance use and misuse might help to educate dancers and choreographers and it might even increase the potential of dancers.
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