The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of a 24-week aquatic training (AT) program, which included both aerobic and resistance components, on muscle strength (isometric and dynamic), flexibility, and functional mobility in healthy women over 60 years of age. Twenty-two subjects were assigned randomly to either an AT (n = 12) or a control (C, n = 10) group. Volunteers participated in a supervised shallow-water exercise program for 60 minutes a day, 3 days a week; the exercise program consisted of a 10-minute warm-up and stretching, 25 minutes of endurance-type exercise (dancing) at 80% of heart rate (HR)(max), 20 minutes of upper- and lower-body resistance exercises with specialized water-resistance equipment, and a 5-minute cool down. Maximal isometric torque of knee extensors (KEXT) and knee flexors (KFLEX) were evaluated by a Cybex Norm dynamometer, grip strength (HGR) was evaluated using a Jamar hydraulic dynamometer, and dynamic strength was evaluated via the 3 repetition maximum (3RM) test for chest press, knee extension, lat pull down, and leg press. Jumping performance was evaluated using the squat jump (SJ), functional mobility with the timed up-and-go (TUG) test, and trunk flexion with the sit-and-reach test. Body composition was measured using the bioelectrical impedance method. The AT induced significant improvements in KEXT (10.5%) and KFLEX (13.4%) peak torque, HGR strength (13%), 3RM (25.7-29.4%), SJ (24.6%), sit-and-reach (11.6%), and TUG (19.8%) performance. The AT group demonstrated a significant increase in lean body mass (3.4%). No significant changes in these variables were observed in the C group. The results indicate that AT, with both aerobic and resistance components, is an alternative training method for improving neuromuscular and functional fitness performance in healthy elderly women.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate physical fitness in relation to fatness in urban and rural Greek children by means of allometric scaling. Methods: The sample consisted of 360 (189 urban and 171 rural; age 12.3¡0.42 years) boys and 247 (125 urban and 122 rural; age 12.3¡0.43 years) girls. The sample was highly representative (32-64%) of all 12 year old children registered in the prefecture of Trikala, Greece. All volunteers were assessed for BMI and % body fat, as well as sit and reach, basketball throw (BT), vertical jump (VJ), handgrip strength (HG), 40 m sprint, agility run, and 20 m shuttle run. To correct for possible associations between fatness and fitness, a single cause allometric scaling was employed using the natural logarithms (ln) of fitness parameters that were significantly correlated with the ln body fat. Results: Independent-samples t tests revealed that VJ (p,0.05) was significantly higher in boys living in urban settings compared to their rural counterparts. Similarly, BT was found to be significantly better (p,0.05) in urban girls, whereas HG was significantly higher (p,0.05) in rural girls. Conclusion: Considering that (a) only three out of the 14 possible cases (seven fitness parameters for boys and seven for girls) were significantly different between urban and rural children, and (b) these differences were not uniformly distributed in children living in either urban or rural environments, it is concluded that the place of residence has no clear impact on physical fitness as studied herein.

Although warm-up and stretching exercises are routinely performed by gymnasts, it is suggested that stretching immediately prior to an activity might affect negatively the athletic performance. The focus of this investigation was on the acute effect of a protocol, including warm-up and static and dynamic stretching exercises, on speed during vaulting in gymnastics. Eleven boys were asked to perform three different protocols consisting of warm-up, warm-up and static stretching and warm-up and dynamic stretching, on three nonconsecutive days. Each protocol was followed by a “handspring” vault. One-way analysis of variance for repeated-measures showed a significant difference in gymnasts’ speed, following the different protocols. Tukey’s post hoc analysis revealed that gymnasts mean speed during the run of vault was significantly decreased after the application of the static stretching protocol. The findings of the present study indicate the inhibitory role of an acute static stretching in running speed in young gymnasts.

No abstract

This study evaluated and compared the effectiveness of an aerobics-calisthenics (A-CAL) and an aerobics/weight training (A-WT) programs on lower limb strength and body fat (%). Thirty-five adult women (age 42.1 +/- 5.2 years) were randomly assigned to A-CAL (n = 14), A-WT (n = 14), or a control group (n = 7). The A-CAL and A-WT trained 3 days per week for 10 weeks. Maximal bilateral isometric and isokinetic knee extension (KEXT) and flexion (KFLEX) torque, squat jump (SJ), and body fat (%) were measured before and immediately after training. The results revealed nonsignificant differences between A-CAL and A-WT (p > 0.05). Both A-CAL and A-WT improved SJ (p < 0.001). A-WT increased isometric torque of KEXT and KFLEX (p < 0.05), isokinetic torque of KFLEX (p < 0.05), and decreased body fat (%) (p < 0.05) when compared with controls. In summary, the application of a 10-week light-weight training program improved selected strength parameters of healthy women, compared with controls, but the effectiveness of the calisthenics exercises as an independent form of strength training is dubious.

Purpose. This study examined the variations in selected aerobic fitness parameters, namely maximum oxygen consumption (VO 2 max), running velocity at VO 2 max (vVO 2 max), running velocity at ventilatory threshold (vAnT) and 1-minute post-exercise heart rate recovery (%Hrrec) as well as height, body mass and percentage of body fat (%bF) in high-level adolescent soccer players. The relationship between %bF and VO 2 max values was also analyzed. Methods. 25 athletes (mean age: 14.5 ± 1.3 years) were measured at the second week of the preseason period (1 st period) and at the same corresponding week after a 12-month period (2 nd period). Results. VO 2 max, vVO 2 max and vAnT increased significantly by 6.6, 6.5 and 3.27%, respectively, from the 1 st to 2 nd period (p 0.01 -0.05; effect size (ES) = -0.35 -0.66). In contrast, %Hrrec remained relatively unchanged (-0.5%) during the same period (p > 0.05; effect size (ES) = 0.01). %bF showed a negative trend, but no significant correlation with VO 2 max was found during the same period (r = -0.331; p > 0.05). Significant variations were found for height and body mass (2.64 and 11.17%; p 0.01; effect size (ES) = -0.56 and -0.72, respectively), but not for %bF (1.34%; p > 0.05; effect size (ES) = -0.27).Conclusions. This data can provide useful information regarding physiological aerobic adaptations and changes in physical characteristics as a result of a year of soccer training, including growth and maturations processes, during the specific periods tested.

The aims were to develop and validate a VO(2peak) prediction equation from a treadmill running test in active male adolescents. Eighty-eight athletes (12-18 yrs.) performed a maximal exercise test on a treadmill to assess the actual VO2peak and a 20m Shuttle-Run-Test (20mST). A step-wise linear regression analysis was used and the following equation for estimation of VO(2peak) (mL·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹) = 35.477 + 1.832 × duration in min - 0.010 × duration × body mass in kg was developed. The cross-validation statistics were: R = .54, CE = 0.1 mL·kg⁻¹min⁻¹, SEE = 2.5 mL·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹ (4.6%), and TE = 2.6 mL·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹ (4.9%). The cross-validation values (CE, SEE, and TE) were lower compared with those of previously published equations in adolescents that estimated VO(2peak) using anthropometric data, performance in 20mST, and energy cost at submaximal speeds.

Fifteen young basketball players (aged 14.4 – 0.5 yrs) underwent two identical testing sessions spaced one week apart, to determine the reliability of maximum isometric force and force-time parameters during a maximal bilateral isometric leg press effort. The maximal isometric force (MIF), the ratio of maximal force to time (TMIF) to attain maximal force (ARMIF), starting strength (F50), and on a relative scale the time taken to increase the force from 10% to 30%, 60%, and 90% of maximal force were calculated. High intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were found for MIF (0.96), ARMIF (0.85), and F50 (0.90). On the relative scale, the ICCs for the times to produce 30%, 60%, and 90% of maximum force were 0.94, 0.95, 0.95, respectively. The present results indicate that maximum isometric force and the force-time parameters during a bilateral leg press can be measured reliably in pubertal basketball players.