Highlights We found that, in a hot environment, physical workload (in terms of energy expenditure) of rebar work is: overall rebar work (2.57Kcal/min), bar bending (2.26Kcal/min) and bar fixing (2.67Kcal/min). Bar fixing induced significantly higher physiological responses in heart rate, percentage of maximal heart rate, oxygen consumption, energy expenditure as compared to bar bending. Perceptual response was also higher in bar fixing as compared to bar bending, but such difference was not statistically significant. oxygen consumption (9.53 vs. 7.14 ml/min/kg, p < 0.05), and energy expenditure (2.67 vs.2.26 Kcal/min, p < 0.05) (186 vs. 158 W, p < 0.05) as compared to bar bending. Perceptual response was higher in bar fixing but such difference was not statistically significant.Findings of this study enable the calculation of daily energy expenditure of rebar work.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to examine the variation in physical activity of elite soccer players within successive prolonged periods of fixture congestion over 5 months of competition during the competitive season 2011-2012. ), and maximal (>27 km.h -1 ) intensity running (IR) were measured and analysed using a semi-automatic match analysis system (Amisco Pro™). MethodsResults: No differences were observed between congested and non-congested periods (two vs. one match a week, respectively) for the total distance covered at all the speed thresholds over 18 km.h -1 , with no variation in physical fitness over the 5 studied months. Specifically to the playing positions, regardless of the congestion periods, FB and WM covered more distance than CDM over 21km.h -1 ; FB, WM and FW covered similar distances for all running intensities; and CD and CDM covered shorter distance during non-congested compared to congested periods (P<0.05) at light-IR. Conclusion:The present study reveals that prolonged congested match fixture did not affect the high-intensity physical activity of top-class soccer players during official games during a 5 months fixture period.

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Cooling treatment is regarded as one of good practices to provide safe training conditions to athletic trainers in the hot environment. The present study aimed to investigate whether wearing a commercial lightweight and portable hybrid cooling vest that combines air ventilation fans with frozen gel packs was an effective means to reduce participants' body heat strain. In this within-subject repeated measures study, 10 male volunteers participated in two heat-stress trials (one with the cooling vest - COOL condition, and another without - CON condition, in a randomized order) inside a climatic chamber with a controlled ambient temperature 33 °C and relative humidity (RH) 75% on an experimental day. Each trial included a progressively incremental running test, followed by a 40 min post-exercise recovery. Core temperature (Tc), heart rate (HR), sweat rate, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), exercise duration, running distance, power output, and sweat rate were measured. When comparing the two conditions, a non-statistically significant moderate cooling effect in rate of increase in Tc (0.03±0.02 °C/min for COOL vs. 0.04±0.02 °C/min for CON, p=0.054, d=0.57), HR (3±1 bpm/min for COOL vs. 4±1 bpm/min for CON, p=0.229, d=0.40), and physiological strain index (PSI) (0.20±0.06 unit/min for COOL vs. 0.23±0.06 unit/min for CON, p=0.072, d=0.50) was found in the COOL condition during exercise. A non-statistically significant (p>0.05) trivial cooling effect (d<0.2) was observed between the COOL and CON conditions for measures of exercise duration, running distance, power output, sweat rate and RPE. It is concluded that the use of the hybrid cooling vest achieved a moderate cooling effect in lowering the rate of increase in physiological strain without impeding the performance of progressively incremental exercise in the heat.