The purpose of this study was to explore whether a strategic physical activity program can improve cognitive flexibility among children with Internet addiction. Ten school-aged children were recruited by distributing flyers at an elementary school in Taiwan. The participants were screened using the Chinese Internet Addiction Scale. Their executive functions were assessed by a task-switching paradigm and their motor competence was evaluated by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children–Second Edition (MABC-2) before and after a 12-week strategic physical activity intervention (twice per week, 90 min per session). The posttest scores showed significant improvements in accuracy in the pure, mixed, and switch trials and in the manual dexterity and total score of the MABC-2 compared with the pretest scores. Despite the inherited limitations of a single group pretest-posttest design this study employed, the findings shed light on the possibility that a strategic physical activity intervention might be a feasible and effective behavioral approach to enhance cognitive function and motor competence in children with Internet addiction. Further studies including a control group, preferably with a randomized controlled trial design, will be needed to validate the findings.
Background: Aging and chronic degeneration are the primary threats to cardiometabolic health in elderly populations. Regular appropriate exercise would benefit the advanced aging population. Purpose: This study investigates whether the degree of weekly tennis participation exhibits differences in primary cardiometabolic parameters, including arterial stiffness, inflammation, and metabolic biomarkers in elderly tennis players. Methods: One hundred thirty-five long-term participants in elder tennis (>50 years old) were initially screened. Twenty-six eligible and voluntary subjects were divided into high tennis time group (HT) (14 ± 1.3 h/week) and low tennis time group (LT) (4.5 ± 0.7 h/week) by stratification analysis based on the amount of tennis playing activity time. The brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), blood pressure, ankle-brachial index (ABI), blood metabolic biomarkers, and insulin resistance were measured to compare the difference between HT and LT groups. Results: The baPWV was significantly lower in the HT group than that in the LT group (1283.92 ± 37.01 vs. 1403.69 ± 53.71 cm/s, p < 0.05). We also found that the HT insulin-resistant homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) was significantly lower than that of LT (1.41 ± 0.11 vs. 2.27 ± 0.48 μIU/mL, p < 0.05). However, the blood lipid biomarkers (glucose, cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride) were not statistical different between HT and LT groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion: We demonstrated that under the condition of similar daily physical activity level, elderly with a higher time of tennis-playing (HT group) exhibited relatively lower arterial stiffness (lower PWV) and lower insulin resistance compared to those with lower time tennis-playing (LT).
Background Core exercise is often adopted as an adjunct in maintaining musculoskeletal health in rehabilitation; we previously showed that standing core rotational exercise improves femoral blood flow after training. This study aimed to investigate the effects of different rotational cadences on circulatory and hemodynamic responses after acute standing core exercise. Methods Sixteen healthy male adults (22 ± 1 yrs) were randomly assigned to participate in two 30-min standing core exercises of fast (75 rpm, FC) and slow cadence (20 rpm, SC) sessions after completing an acute bout of seated knee extension exercise session (KE) (80% of 1 repetition maximum × 12 repetitions × 3 sets). Impedance cardiography-derived circulatory responses and femoral hemodynamics by ultrasound imaging were measured pre- and 30, and 60 min post-exercise. Results KE acutely increased post-exercise cardiac output at 30 min (p = 0.008) and heart rate at 30 min (p = 0.04) and 60 min (p = 0.01), yet brachial blood pressure did not change. Systemic vascular resistance was significantly lower after FC and KE at 30 min (p = 0.008) and 60 (p = 0.04) min, respectively, compared with the baseline. In addition, KE acutely decreased post-exercise arterial stiffness (p = 0.05) at 30 min, increased femoral conductance (p = 0.03, p < 0.001), and blood flow (p = 0.009, p < 0.001) at 30 and 60 min. No significant changes were observed in absolute femoral blood flow after FC and SC, except that FC significantly increased relative femoral blood flow (p = 0.007) and conductance (p = 0.005). Post-exercise femoral diameter significantly increased in KE at 30 (p = 0.03) and 60 min (p = 0.01), but not in core exercise. Conclusion Our results suggest that standing core exercise elicits circulatory and hemodynamic changes only when the rotational cadence is set at a faster cadence, which provides preliminary scientific evidence for its use in exercise programs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.