AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC WORK CAPACITY OF THE AMA

Abstract

During the past years, in order to find out Ama's (female fishing diver) adaptability to dive and fish in the water many anthropometric and physiological studies have been made and reported mainly by Japanese and Korean investigators. T. Ogawa (1), Yamamoto (2), and S. Ogawa (3) reported that physical constitution was better in the Ama as compared with the non-Ama. Shibuya (4), Oka (5), Tatai (6), S. Ogawa (7), and Song (8) measured the physical fitness and cardio-respiratory functions of the Ama, and found that Ama had generally better functions than those of normal women. But there were no observations on maximum oxygen intake and maximum oxygen debt of the Ama as the most valuable indices of aerobic and anaerobic work capacities. So this study was designed to measure these items on the Ama and to compare with those of normal women.