Physical Activity of Prospective Physical Education Teachers During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The study purpose was measuring the physical activity of prospective physical education teachers in Palembang city during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods. 552 participants (M: 307; F: 245) with a minimum age of 19 (21.27±1.66) participated in this study. The method of this study was survey, using IPAQ-SF to assess physical activity and energy expenditure levels based on MET. Data collection was carried out through an online survey using Google Forms. Results. The results of this study show that the majority of the participants combined the moderate and high levels of physical activity (88.77%) and only a small number of the participants were in the low level category (11.23%). The results of this study showed that the pandemic conditions do not prevent people from doing sufficient PA to maintain their health, but daily habits and knowledge differences related to health and physical activity might be the distinguishing factor between students majoring in sports and society in general. Conclusions. This study shows that most of prospective PE teacher candidates from three universities in Palembang combined the moderate and high PA levels. While there were some student athletes, non-athlete students also have the awareness to live a healthy life even though there is no demand for them to achieve certain targets.