To reduce transmission of the coronavirus, the Brazilian government adopted containment measures to control the virus’ spread, including limitations to the practice of physical activity. It was aimed to analyze the effects of COVID-19 quarantine on physical activity levels, energy expenditure, quality of life, and level of stress in a sample of the Brazilian population. The sample included 426 participants (7 to 80 years). The International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Short form survey-36 (SF-36), and Stress Perception Scale, were used to assess the level of physical activity, quality of life and stress, respectively. The anthropometric data was used to the assessment of body mass index and basal metabolic rate. Body weight increased significantly in all sample (p < 0.05). During the pandemic, 84% of the sample indicated a low level of physical activity. Furthermore, weekly energy expenditure decreased significantly in all age groups during the pandemic (children p < 0.0001; adolescents: p < 0.0001; adults p < 0.001, and elderly p < 0.0001). All aspects of quality of life, significantly reduced in both sexes in all age groups (p < 0.05). With the exception of children, stress levels increased significantly during the pandemic (adolescents: male: p = 0.003, female: p < 0.05; adults: male: p = 0.003, female: p = 0.01, and elderly: male: p = 0.02, female: p = 0.03). Findings from the present study suggests that COVID-19 social isolation has negatively affected Brazilian’ physical activity and quality of life.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of ingesting ibuprofen on post-workout recovery of muscle damage, body temperature and muscle power indicators in Paralympic powerlifting athletes. The study was carried out with eight Paralympic powerlifting athletes (aged 27.0 ± 5.3 years and 79.9 ± 25.5 kg of body mass) competing at the national level, with a minimum training experience of 12 months, who all submitted to two experimental conditions: Ibuprofen (2 × 00 mg) and control. The maximal isometric force of the upper limbs and rate of force development, thermography, and serum biochemical analyzes of creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase were measured before, after, 24 h after and 48 h after the intervention. Maximal isometric force only decreased in the placebo condition, which increased back to baseline levels, while no substantial decline in baseline force was seen in the ibuprofen condition, although no effect for exercise condition was detected. After the exercise, the rate of force development decreased significantly for both conditions and did not exceed baseline levels again after 48 h. Muscle temperature decreased significantly at 48-h post-exercise in the placebo condition, when compared with the previous day of measurement; and deltoid muscle temperature at 48-h post-exercise was higher with the ibuprofen condition. Although the results indicate some positive effects of ibuprofen use, they do not enable a clear statement regarding its positive effects on muscle function and muscle damage. Ibuprofen seems to have caused a delay in the anti-inflammatory response following exercise.

Introduction: The effects of aerobic exercise on the immune system are not yet fully defined in the scientific literature. This fact demonstrates the need to investigate its influence on existing immunological markers by classifying and quantifying their acute and chronic effects. Objective: To investigate the effects of acute and chronic aerobic exercise on inflammatory markers of healthy adults. Methods: This study is a systematic review according to PRISMA recommendations. The following databases were searched: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, Bireme and Cochrane Library, and article references. The last search was performed in March 2019. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-randomized controlled trials (NRCTs) investigating the acute and chronic effects of aerobic exercise on immune markers in healthy male and female adults aged 20 to 45 years, without restrictions in language or year of publication. Two authors independently analyzed the studies by reading the titles, abstracts, and full texts. Risk of Study bias was analyzed using Cochrane's Risk of Bias Tool. Outcomes: We included 15 studies in this systematic review, 13 of which were acute intervention and 2 were chronic, with 296 participants, 196 men and 100 women all being healthy individuals. It was observed that the acute intervention promotes changes in most immunological markers, while the chronic intervention interferes with a smaller proportion, this being in lymphocyte subpopulations. In the evaluation of quality, it was found that most studies did not present a high risk of bias in the evaluated aspects, but an unclear related risk of bias was observed, requiring a more careful analysis. Conclusion: Thus, it can be concluded that the evidence indicates that acute and chronic interventions may modify most immune markers, but aspects such as gender, contraceptive pill use in women, physical capacity of the investigated individuals, environment, and type and intensity of the exercises may interfere with these markers as well as the data analysis. Therefore, this review suggests that further research is needed to contribute to the confirmation and estimation of results.

Introduction: Physical capabilities are an important parameter of the functional development of adolescents, not only by chronological age but also by their maturational state, as individuals with the same chronological age can have different performance to their less mature counterparts. Objective: To compare and relate the physical capabilities and hormonal markers according to sex and maturity of adolescents. Method: The sample consisted of adolescents of both sexes, aged 10 to 14 years. We evaluated the maturity achieved by a predictive equation of skeletal age, physical capabilities (explosive power of upper and lower limbs, velocity of upper limbs and agility) and hormonal markers (testosterone and oestradiol) via chemiluminescence. Results: Females showed more advanced maturational status, higher weight, body height and oestradiol levels; males performed better in the explosive force of upper and lower limbs, upper limb speed, agility and testosterone levels. In the normal maturational state males showed greater skeletal age, body weight, body height, explosive strength of upper and lower limbs, and testosterone levels; the females in the normal maturational state had higher skeletal age, body weight, body height, explosive upper limb strength and oestradiol levels. In the male correlation analysis, bone age was related to the explosive strength of upper and lower limbs and testosterone; while bone age in females was related to explosive upper limb strength and oestradiol. Conclusion: It is concluded that maturation, testosterone and oestradiol levels play an important role in the physical aspects and performance of motor skills of adolescents, especially in upper limb force which was more related to the maturation obtained by skeletal age of males and females.

Background and Objectives: The effects of warm-up in athletic success have gained strong attention in recent studies. There is, however, a wide gap in awareness of the warm-up process to be followed, especially in Paralympic powerlifting (PP) athletes. This study aimed to analyze different types of warm-up on the physical performance of PP athletes. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 12 elite Brazilian PP male athletes (age, 24.14 ± 6.21 years; bodyweight, 81.67 ± 17.36 kg). The athletes performed maximum isometric force (MIF), rate of force development (RFD), and speed test (Vmax) in three different methods of warm-up. Tympanic temperature was used to estimate the central body temperature. Results: A significant difference was observed for MIF in the without warm-up (WW) condition in relation to the traditional warm-up (TW) and stretching warm-up (SW) (p = 0.005, η2p = 0.454, high effect). On the contrary, no significant differences were observed in RFD, fatigue index (FI) and time in the different types of warm up (p > 0.05). Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in relation to the maximum repetition (p = 0.121, η2p = 0.275, medium effect) or the maximum speed (p = 0.712, η2p = 0.033, low effect) between the different types of warm up. In relation to temperature, significant differences were found for the TW in relation to the “before” and “after” conditions. In addition, differences were found between WW in the “after” condition and SW. In addition, WW demonstrated a significant difference in relation to TW in the “10 min later” condition (F = 26.87, p = 0.05, η2p = 0.710, high effect). Conclusions: The different types of warm-up methods did not seem to provide significant differences in the force indicators in elite PP athletes.

Background: Mechanisms that influence muscle strength can interfere with neuromotor performance and overall health, thus hormone markers and maturation can interact in this process. Objective: The present study aimed to verify the relationship of hormonal markers and biological maturation on neuromotor abilities in young people. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with 44 female participants (11.5 ± 1.5 years). Hormones were analyzed biochemically. Skeletal and somatic maturation were analyzed using anthropometry. The muscular power of the upper and lower limbs, body speed with change of direction, and speed of the upper limbs were verified. Results: Bone age was correlated with hormonal markers (estradiol: r = 0.58; p = 0.0007), (testosterone: r = 0.51; p = 0.005). Peak growth velocity correlated with estradiol (r = 0.51; p = 0.004). The power of the lower limbs (estradiol: r = 0.52; p = 0.006; testosterone: r = 0.42; p = 0.03) and of the upper limbs (estradiol: r = 0.51; p = 0.007; testosterone: r = 0.42; p = 0.02) had a positive correlation with hormone levels and had similar results with maturation. The analysis by artificial neural networks indicated that the maturation can predict the neuromotor performance between 57.4% and 76%, while the hormonal markers showed a potential of more than 95% for the foreshadowing of the neuromotor performance of the upper limbs. Conclusion: It was possible to conclude that the hormones had a relationship with maturational development and bone age in female subjects.

OBJECTIVE To analyze whether socioeconomic and clinical aspects and the aspects of healthy life habits are associated with the quality of life of persons living with HIV/AIDS.METHODS This is a cross-sectional exploratory quantitative research, with 227 persons living with HIV/AIDS, treated at two hospitals of reference between April 2012 and June 2014. We used structured questionnaires to assess socioeconomic aspects (gender, age, education level, marital status, race, socioeconomic status, dependents on family income, employment relationship), clinical parameters (time of disease diagnosis, use and time of medication, CD4 T-cell count, and viral load), and practice of physical exercise. To assess quality of life, we used the Quality of Life questionnaire (HAT-QoL). For characterization of the socioeconomic and clinical data and domains of quality of life, we conducted a descriptive analysis (simple frequency, averages, and standard deviations). We applied linear regression, following a hierarchical model for each domain of quality of life.RESULTS The domains that presented lower averages for quality of life were financial concern, concern with confidentiality, general function, and satisfaction with life. We found associations with the variables of socioeconomic status and physical exercise, therapy, and physical exercise for the last two domains, consecutively.CONCLUSIONS The quality of life of persons living with HIV/AIDS shows losses, especially in the financial and confidentiality areas, followed by general function of the body and satisfaction with life, in which socioeconomic and clinical aspects and healthy living habits, such as the practice of physical exercise, are determining factors for this reality.

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