Search results for "FITNESS"
showing 10 items of 1020 documents
Cardiorespiratory fitness in volleyball athletes following a covid-19 infection: A cross-sectional study
2021
Athletes’ lifestyles have been dramatically affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Since COVID-19 primarily affects the respiratory system and to a lesser degree the cardiovascular system, the goal of this study was to examine the effects of COVID-19-caused detraining on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) of recently recovered volleyball athletes. Sixteen experienced volleyball athletes (age 24 ± 4.5 years) who were recently diagnosed and recovered from a COVID-19 infection volunteered to participate in this study and were tested for CRF and spirometry. Given that participants had only mild symptoms of infection, the primary focus of this study was on the effects of detr…
Respiratory Effects of Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollutants During Exercise
2020
Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) is increasing worldwide. Habitual physical activity is known to prevent cardiorespiratory diseases and mortality, but whether exposure to TRAP during exercise affects respiratory health is still uncertain. Exercise causes inflammatory changes in the airways, and its interaction with the effects of TRAP or ozone might be detrimental, for both athletes exercising outdoor and urban active commuters. In this Mini-Review, we summarize the literature on the effects of exposure to TRAP and/or ozone during exercise on lung function, respiratory symptoms, performance, and biomarkers. Ozone negatively affected pulmonary function after exercise, especially after co…
Determinants of dynamic inspiratory muscle strength in healthy trained elderly.
2021
Background: The S-Index assessed by means of electronic devices is a measure of Inspiratory Muscle Strength (IMS) that highly correlates with the maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP). The variables involved when using regression models for the prediction of IMS/MIP depend on both the sample characteristics and the device or protocol used. In light of the scarce information on the influence of physical activity (PA) on IMS in healthy older adults (OA), together with the incorporation of new assessment devices, the objectives of this research are: 1) to determine which factors influence the IMS in a group of trained OA, using a portable electronic device; and 2) to propose a regression model to…
The importance of standard operating procedures in physical fitness assessment: a brief review
2022
Abstract Background Physical fitness status is a key aspect of health and, consequently, it is important to create and adopt appropriate interventions to maintain or improve it, and assess it using valid measures. While in other testing contexts, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are commonly and widely adopted, in physical fitness testing, a variety of unstandardized testing protocols are proposed. Aims The topic of this review was to evaluate the existing literature on SOPs in physical fitness assessment and to provide guidelines on how SOPs could be created and adopted. Method The electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were screened and original, peer-reviewed studies …
Physical Fitness Evaluation of School Children in Southern Italy: A Cross Sectional Evaluation
2018
The aim of this work was to evaluate the fitness levels of different physical components in schoolchildren in southern Italy and identify age-related effects of physical performance. One hundred and fifty-four schoolchildren with ages ranging between 6 and 10 years (age 8.1 ± 1.45 years; 33.70 ± 10.25 kg; 131.50 ± 13.60 cm) were recruited for the investigation. Each scholar underwent a fitness-test battery composed of five elements. A Hand-Grip Strength Test to assess the strength of the hand muscles, a Standing Broad Jump Test to assess lower body explosive strength, a Sit-Up Test to exhaustion to evaluate abdominal muscular endurance, a 4 × 10-m Shuttle Run Test to assess agility, and a 2…
Mediterranean Diet and Physical Activity Decrease the Initiation of Cardiovascular Drug Use in High Cardiovascular Risk Individuals: A Cohort Study
2021
Our aim was to assess whether long-term adherence to a Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) were associated with a lower initiation of cardiovascular drug use. We studied the association between cumulative average of MedDiet adherence and LTPA and the risk of cardiovascular drug initiation in older adults at high cardiovascular risk (PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea trial participants) non-medicated at baseline: glucose-lowering drugs (n = 4437), antihypertensives (n = 2145), statins (n = 3977), fibrates (n = 6391), antiplatelets (n = 5760), vitamin K antagonists (n = 6877), antianginal drugs (n = 6837), and cardiac glycosides (n = 6954). One-point increas…
RNA viruses as complex adaptive systems
2004
RNA viruses have high mutation rates and so their populations exist as dynamic and complex mutant distributions. It has been consistently observed that when challenged with a new environment, viral populations adapt following hyperbolic-like kinetics: adaptation is initially very rapid, but then slows down as fitness reaches an asymptotic value. These adaptive dynamics have been explained in terms of populations moving towards the top of peaks on rugged fitness landscapes. Fitness fluctuations of varying magnitude are observed during adaptation. Often the presence of fluctuations in the evolution of physical systems indicates some form of self-organization, or where many components of the s…
Optimising training adaptations and performance in military environment.
2018
Abstract Objectives Worldwide decreases in physical fitness and increases in body fat among youth have set challenges for armed forces to recruit physically capable soldiers. Therefore, knowledge of optimizing physical adaptation and performance through physical training is vital. In addition, maintaining or improving physical performance among professional soldiers in various military environments is crucial for overall military readiness. The present review focuses on the effects of military training on physical performance by searching for optimal methods to do it. Design and methods Review article based on selected literature searches using the main keywords ‘physical performance’ and ‘…
Deep learning approach for prediction of impact peak appearance at ground reaction force signal of running activity
2020
Protruding impact peak is one of the features of vertical ground reaction force (GRF) that is related to injury risk while running. The present research is dedicated to predicting GRF impact peak appearance by setting a binary classification problem. Kinematic data, namely a number of raw signals in the sagittal plane, collected by the Vicon motion capture system (Oxford Metrics Group, UK) were employed as predictors. Therefore, the input data for the predictive model are presented as a multi-channel time series. Deep learning techniques, namely five convolutional neural network (CNN) models were applied to the binary classification analysis, based on a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) classifi…
Assessment of autonomic function as marker of training status: the role of heart rate recovery after exercise
2014
Heart rate recovery (HRR) is the rate at which the heart rate returns to baseline after a period of exercise. HRR is a marker of autonomic function and a predictor of cardiovascular fitness in healthy subjects and in those with cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, HRR has been proposed as a marker of training status in athletes. Our aim was to perform a review of studies that evaluated HRR after exercise in trained and untrained healthy subjects and assessed its relationship with training status. Several studies suggest that the assessing of HRR after exercise may be useful to distinguish trained from untrained individuals and to establish an athlete’s state of training. However, standardizat…