Objectives To assess physical activity (PA), mental health and well-being of adults in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia during the initial stages of National governments’ Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) containment responses. Design Observational, cross-sectional. Methods An online survey was disseminated to adults (n = 8,425; 44.5 ± 14.8y) residing in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia within the first 2-6 weeks of government-mandated COVID-19 restrictions. Main outcome measures included: Stages of Change scale for exercise behaviour change; International Physical Activity Questionnaire (short-form); World Health Organisation-5 Well-being Index; and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-9. Results Participants who reported a negative change in exercise behaviour between pre-initial COVID-19 restrictions and during initial COVID-19 restrictions demonstrated poorer mental health and well-being compared to those demonstrating either a positive-or no change in their exercise behaviour ( p < 0.001). Whilst women reported more positive changes in exercise behaviour, young people (18-29y) reported more negative changes (both p < 0.001). Individuals who had more positive exercise behaviours reported better mental health and well-being ( p < 0.001). Although there were no differences in PA between countries, individuals in New Zealand reported better mental health and well-being ( p < 0.001). Conclusion The initial COVID-19 restrictions have differentially impacted upon PA habits of individuals based upon their age and sex, and therefore have important implications for international policy and guideline recommendations. Public health interventions that encourage PA should target specific groups (e.g., men, young adults) who are most vulnerable to the negative effects of physical distancing and/or self-isolation.

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Background physical activity patterns is essential when attempting to assess the effectiveness of physical activity interventions. Objectives physical activity questionnaires on a representative sample of New Zealand adults. Methods 70 adults aged 18-65 years from around Christchurch, New Zealand were required to wear an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer during all waking hours for 7 consecutive days. Immediately following the 7 day accelerometer period participants were required to complete the long forms of both the New Zealand Physical Activity Questionnaire (NZPAQ-LF) and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-LF).Results Both the NZPAQ-LF and the IPAQ-LF questionnaires showed small to moderate correlations with ActiGraph data for time spent in moderate-intensity physical activity (r = 0.19-0.30) and total physical activity (sum of moderate and vigorous-intensity physical activity, r = 0.30-0.32). In comparison with the ActiGraph data, both self-report questionnaires tended to overestimate activity levels by approximately 165%. Total physical activity levels gathered from both questionnaires were strongly correlated with each other (r = 0.79) and showed good levels of agreement in the Bland-Altman plots. Conclusions The long forms of the NZPAQ and IPAQ were found to have acceptable validity when detecting participants' ability to meet activity guidelines based on exercise duration, but a significant amount of overestimation was evident. This presents a need for both instruments to be further developed and tested in order to increase validity.It is well known that regular physical activity not only has a positive effect on individuals' fitness levels 1 but is associated with a range of health benefits.

Ainslie PN, Barach A, Murrell C, Hamlin M, Hellemans J, Ogoh S. Alterations in cerebral autoregulation and cerebral blood flow velocity during acute hypoxia: rest and exercise. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 292: H976 -H983, 2007. First published September 29, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00639.2006.-We examined the relationship between changes in cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular function in 14 healthy volunteers with and without hypoxia [arterial O2 saturation (SaO 2 ) ϳ80%] at rest and during 60 -70% maximal oxygen uptake steady-state cycling exercise. During all procedures, ventilation, end-tidal gases, heart rate (HR), arterial blood pressure (BP; Finometer) cardiac output (Modelflow), muscle and cerebral oxygenation (near-infrared spectroscopy), and middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity (MCAV; transcranial Doppler ultrasound) were measured continuously. The effect of hypoxia on dynamic cerebral autoregulation was assessed with transfer function gain and phase shift in mean BP and MCAV. At rest, hypoxia resulted in increases in ventilation, progressive hypocapnia, and general sympathoexcitation (i.e., elevated HR and cardiac output); these responses were more marked during hypoxic exercise (P Ͻ 0.05 vs. rest) and were also reflected in elevation of the slopes of the linear regressions of ventilation, HR, and cardiac output with SaO 2 (P Ͻ 0.05 vs. rest). MCAV was maintained during hypoxic exercise, despite marked hypocapnia (44.1 Ϯ 2.9 to 36.3 Ϯ 4.2 Torr; P Ͻ 0.05). Conversely, hypoxia both at rest and during exercise decreased cerebral oxygenation compared with muscle. The low-frequency phase between MCAV and mean BP was lowered during hypoxic exercise, indicating impairment in cerebral autoregulation. These data indicate that increases in cerebral neurogenic activity and/or sympathoexcitation during hypoxic exercise can potentially outbalance the hypocapniainduced lowering of MCAV. Despite maintaining MCAV, such hypoxic exercise can potentially compromise cerebral autoregulation and oxygenation.hypocapnia; hypoxemia AN IMPORTANT PROTECTIVE FEATURE of the cerebral circulation is the ability to maintain cerebral blood flow (CBF) over a wide range of cerebral perfusion pressures (36). At rest, lowering of arterial PCO 2 (Pa CO 2 ) (hypocapnia) as a result of hyperventilation and elevations in sympathetic activation act to enhance cerebral autoregulation (i.e., by widening the cerebral autoregulation curve and causing a rightward shift, respectively), thus preventing cerebral hyperperfusion (36). During exercise, however, it has been shown that dynamic cerebral autoregulation was impaired by exhaustive exercise despite a hyperventilation-induced reduction in Pa CO 2 and likely exercise-induced elevations in sympathetic activation (35).Acute hypoxia in resting and exercising humans results in an enhanced muscle sympathetic discharge, cardiac output, skeletal muscle blood flow, and increased heart rate with little or no alteration in mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) (15, 38). In the brain, the vasod...

The current evidence suggests that exercise intervention in overweight and obese adolescents improves body composition, particularly by lowering body fat. The limited available evidence further indicates that exercise intervention may improve some cardiometabolic risk factors.