Changes in blood antioxidant status in American football players and soccer players over a training macrocycle

The effectiveness of sport training programs should be assessed regularly against biochemical indices. This study assesses changes in the antioxidant status indices in American football players (AF) and soccer players (SP) over a training macrocycle. The study was carried out with Poland's American Football League players (AF, n = 11, age 24.0 ± 3.7 years) and first-league soccer players (SP, n = 11, age 26.5 ± 3.8 years). Resting venous blood samples were collected from the players at the beginning of the three periods (preparatory, competition, and transition) making up the training macrocycle to determine the activity levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR), creatine kinase (CK), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), as well as the concentrations of non-enzymatic antioxidants (uric acid-UA and glutathione-GSH) and the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA). The period effect on SOD (p