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Objective: With the emergence of the COVID-19 virus, there was a widespread infection rate among college campuses, creating a need to understand the impact of COVID-19 infection on the health and wellbeing of adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine COVID-19 incidence and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) among undergraduate students in the 2 years post-COVID-19 pandemic lock-down., Participants: Participants ( n  = 151) included undergraduate college freshmen students during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic years., Methods: A series of annual surveys ( n  = 151) and laboratory measures among a sub-sample of participants ( n  = 28) were conducted to assess COVID-19 incidence, CRF, anthropometrics, and physical activity (PA)., Results: Over half of participants self-reported COVID-19 infection (59%), "good" or better CRF, a healthy body mass index (BMI), and 25% met PA recommendations. Nearly a quarter, (24%) perceived a negative impact of COVID-19 on their CRF and although not statistically significant, participants who contracted COVID-19 had 46% lower odds of having a positive perception of CRF than those who did not contract COVID-19 before. However, students who were more physically active were more likely to perceive a negative impact of COVID-19 incidence on their CRF ( p  = 0.035)., Conclusion: Although no relationship was detected between COVID-19 and CRF, those who perceived a negative impact of COVID-19 on their CRF reported engaging in more physical activity., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Alvaro, Levers, Barberio, Jin, Stranieri and Sacheck.)

Abstract: Hatfield, DL, Stranieri, AM, Vincent, LM, and Earp, JE. Effect of a neoprene knee sleeve on performance and muscle activity in men and women during high-intensity, high-volume resistance training. J Strength Cond Res 35(12): 3300-3307, 2021-The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a commercially available neoprene knee sleeve (KS) on exercise performance and muscle activity during an exhaustive leg press exercise. Twenty resistance-trained individuals, 11 men {21.0 ± 2.2 years; 77.7 ± 8.7 kg; 1 repetition maximum (1RM/body mass [BM]): 0.30 ± 0.04} and 9 women (22.0 ± 3.5 years; 66.1 ± 9.1 kg; 1RM/BM: 0.30 ± 0.04), all subjects (21.5 ± 2.8 years; 72.5 ± 10.5 kg; 1RM/BM: 0.30 ± 0.04), participated in 3 testing sessions. The second and third sessions were performed using a counterbalanced and randomized design in which subjects exercised with (WS) or without (NS) KSs and performed 6 sets of leg press exercise at 80% of 1RM until failure with a 3-minute rest between sets. Number of repetitions, blood lactate (BL), heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and peak and average power were recorded after each set. Surface electromyography (EMG) of the right and left vastus lateralis muscles was also recorded to compare muscle activity between conditions. Significance was set at p ≤ 0.05, and values are presented as mean ± SD. No significant differences were observed in the total number of repetitions for all sets (p = 0.3; WS 75.3 ± 33.7, NS 79.8 ± 34.3) and the number of repetitions per set between conditions (p ≤ 0.05) or between men and women. Similarly, no significance differences (p ≤ 0.05) were observed for BL, HR, RPE, or EMG per set between conditions or between men and women. These results suggest that wearing compressive neoprene KSs has no effect on improving performance and associated variables during high-load, high-volume lower-body resistance training., (Copyright © 2021 National Strength and Conditioning Association.)