Aim To determine the effect of eight weeks basketball and swimming on the health-related fitness of male university students.

Method Students who registered for the “Swimming and basketball” physical education course had two classes a week that lasted 45 minutes each. Their health-related fitness was assessed before and after eight weeks. The following methods were used for assessment: (a) body mass measurements for body composition, (b) standing long jump for explosive leg strength, (c) 60s curl-ups for muscular endurance, (d) 1.6 km run for cardiorespiratory fitness, and (e) sit-and-reach box test for trunk flexibility. Paired t-test was used to compare pre and post data with alpha values for statistical significance set at 0.05.

Results Forty six students (18-20 years, mean age (SD) = 18.72 years (0.54)) completed all the assessments. There were improvements (p < 0.05) in the following variables (mean (SD), percentage improvement): (a) muscular endurance (35 (9) vs 39 (9) repetitions, 9.28%), (b) trunk flexibility (26.6 (8.0) vs 29.7 (7.9) cm, 11.34%), (c) 1.6 km run time (7.19 (2.52) vs 6.78 (1.53) min, 5.71%) and (d) explosive leg strength (172 (24) vs 180 (26) cm, 4.62%).

Conclusion There is evidence that the program improved the health-related fitness of the students.

Acknowledgment The author thanks the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for supporting the presentation of this conference paper.