The Study was conducted in G.D.C Aurangabad, India during June 2012 to December 2012.

Selection of the Subjects: Sample size was calculated using A-priori Sample Size Calculator for Student t-Tests software [6] for detecting a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.8) with α as 0.05 and power of study as 80% for two tailed hypothesis testing. Thirty male University Volleyball players in the age group of 20 to 25 years were recruited. Subjects with history of chronic diseases and addiction were excluded. Thirty male individuals in the age group of 20 to 25 years were recruited as control group from the friends and relatives of the players while taking care that they belonged to same socioeconomic group. They were having a sedentary lifestyle (not exercising more than 20 minutes on 3 or more days a week) with no involvement in any athletic activity or yoga. Individuals having history of any chronic disease or addiction, history of trauma or injury were excluded from the study.

All the subjects and controls were provided information regarding the nature of the study and the detailed procedure of the study was explained to them. Written informed consent was taken from all the participants. The approval of the study protocol was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee prior to commencement of the study.

Basic Data Collection: The subjects and controls were called early in the morning between 9 am & 10 am with light breakfast. They were advised to follow their regular sleep timings and to avoid vigorous exercise 48 hours prior to collection of data.

Body Weight was measured with the help of weighing machine after proper calibration. Subjects were asked to come in light clothing. Height measurement was done using the height scale which was fixed to the wall.

Assessment of VO₂ max.: Queen’s college step test was used for the indirect estimation of maximal aerobic capacity by the method validated for young Indian men by Chatterjee S et al., [7].

Bench stepping sub-maximal exercise for males was used as per protocol. Before the test, subjects were asked to perform 5 to 7 minutes of warm up exercises consisting of lower limb stretching & brisk walking. Wooden bench of height 16.25 inches was used for the test. Stop watch was used to monitor the timings. A Metronome was utilized to measure the stepping cadence set at 96 beats per min. i.e. 24 complete steps for males. The step test was done after a brief period of demonstration and all the subjects performed the test for complete three minutes. After completing the test, subjects remained standing and their carotid pulse rate was measured during 5^th to 20^th seconds into recovery period.

Fifteen seconds Recovery heart rate (HR) was converted as beats per minute (15 second HR x 4).

Following formula was used for determining VO₂max: VO2max = 111.33 – (0.42 X Pulse Rate per minute) [7,8]

For each parameter, the mean value and standard deviation were calculated. Unpaired t-test’ was applied for statistical significance. All the calculations and statistics were done using online GraphPad (GraphPad Software Inc. California, USA). A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. A p-value of less than 0.001 was considered to be statistically highly significant.

The mean values for the age, body weight and height in volleyball players and controls are described in [Table/Fig-1]. The mean predicted VO₂max in volleyball players and controls and the analysis results are described in [Table/Fig-2].

The mean predicted VO₂max was 37.01 ± 3.94 ml/kg/min in controls with sedentary lifestyle. The results are in line with that reported by Verma SK et al., [9] and as highlighted by them, the VO₂max values in sedentary population from our country are probably the lowest in comparison with the similar reports in literature. When compared with reports from the developed countries like United States of America by Taylor et al., [10], Germany by Koniz et al., 1961 [11], Great Britain by Davies et al., [12] and Canada by Robinson et al., [13], the mean value of VO₂max of our young sedentary subjects was found to be lower by around 12 to 35%. Lower VO₂ max in study subjects as compared to sedentary boys from other countries maybe due to factors like nutritional status, environmental factors and genetic factors [9].

High level of aerobic capacity is indispensable for achieving success in many sports; therefore, the determination of VO₂ max is of special importance as it plays the key role in professional sports and it is the reflection of any athlete's physical capability [1]. The mean predicted VO₂max was 52.99 ± 5.13 ml/kg/min in volleyball players in our study. The results are in line with that reported by Verma SK et al., [9] and again as highlighted by them, the VO₂max values in volleyball players from our country are probably the lowest in comparison with the similar reports in literature. Therefore they suggested that any successes of the Indian teams may be attributed to their higher levels of skill rather than to their VO₂max which further strengthens the need to improve the physical fitness standards of our athletes. The mean VO₂max for Volleyball players in an earlier study from Maharashtra was found to be 44.55 ml\kg\min [1]. However, Smith DJ et al., [14] have reported VO₂max of 56.7 ml\kg\min in Canadian national volleyball team players. Thus, the aerobic capacity of players from our region falls on the lower side. The limitation of the present study was the small sample size of subjects. So, it is important to replicate and extend our observations to large population.

Thus the present study showed a superior VO₂max in volleyball players as compared to normal control group, but still it is far less than International standards. Further research is needed to study the physical and physiological characteristics of Indian volleyball players and compare it with international standards.