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In 'Mental health outcomes of the Daily Mile in elementary school children: a single‐arm pilot study', Arkesteyn et al. (Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2022) discussed and investigated the effect of a classroom activity break, named The Daily Mile, on pupils' self‐esteem, self‐perception competence, and mental health. Starting from the interesting and novel results of Arkesteyn et al. (Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2022), this comment focuses on the concurrent evidence about the effect of The Daily Mile on pupils' physical and mental health. Overall, this comment would reflect and critically review considerations for future research on the topic and to adopt it in the school context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neural drive to the muscle is the primary determinant of the rate of force development (RFD) in the first 50 ms of a rapid contraction. It is still unproven if repetitive rapid contractions specifically impair the net neural drive to the muscles. To isolate the fatiguing effect of contraction rapidity, 17 male adult volunteers performed 100 burst‐like (i.e., brief force pulses) isometric contractions of the knee extensors. The response to electrically‐evoked single and octet femoral nerve stimulation was measured with high‐density surface electromyography (HD‐sEMG) from the vastus lateralis and medialis muscles. Root mean square (RMS) of each channel of HD‐sEMG was normalized to the corresponding M‐wave peak‐to‐peak amplitude, while muscle fiber conduction velocity (MFCV) was normalized to M‐wave conduction velocity to compensate for changes in sarcolemma properties. Voluntary RFD 0–50 ms decreased (d = −0.56, p < 0.001) while time to peak force (d = 0.90, p < 0.001) and time to RFDpeak increased (d = 0.56, p = 0.034). Relative RMS (d = −1.10, p = 0.006) and MFCV (d = −0.53, p = 0.007) also decreased in the first 50 ms of voluntary contractions. Evoked octet RFD 0–50 ms (d = 0.60, p = 0.020), M‐wave amplitude (d = 0.77, p = 0.009) and conduction velocity (d = 1.75, p < 0.001) all increased. Neural efficacy, i.e., voluntary/octet force ratio, largely decreased (d = −1.50, p < 0.001). We isolated the fatiguing impact of contraction rapidity and found that the decrement in RFD, particularly when calculated in the first 50 ms of muscle contraction, can mainly be explained by a decrease in the net neural drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]