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Aquatic exercises might be considered a safe modality for the treatment of individuals after stroke.To assess the effectiveness of aquatic exercise (AE) compared to land-based conventional therapy or no intervention.This overview of systematic reviews (SR) followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration, the protocol was registered on PROSPERO, and the risk of bias was assessed by AMSTAR-2. The databases Medline, Embase, Web of Science, SportDiscus, Cinahl, Scopus, Scielo, and PEDro, from 1945 to 2024, were used.In total, 15 SRs were included. All reviews showed methodological failure according to the AMSTAR-2 classification, being shown to be critically low. The domains that presented the worst performance were related to the registration of the protocol, assessment of the risk of bias of the primary studies, and adequate conduction of the meta-analysis.According to the included reviews, aquatic exercise can be effective, especially in improving balance, however, caution is needed to interpret these findings due to their critically low methodological quality. No adverse effects were reported in any of the reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to identify, through a 28-week follow-up, the association between pain and engagement in different sports among adolescents., Methods: In total, 63 adolescents reported the occurrence of pain, which was tracked weekly. Participants were categorized into 2 groups based on their sports participation: "swimming group" and "other sports group." Researchers directly measured the time spent in different intensities during sports participation for 1 week using a heart rate monitor. For the covariates, body mass, body fatness, and whole-body lean soft tissue were assessed using a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scanner. Kaplan-Meier plots and risk of pain were calculated for the absence of pain during the follow-up., Results: The association between the sport type and pain occurrence remained significant even after adjusting the models for potential confounders, showing that swimmers had an increased risk of reporting pain in the neck (HR = 3.33; 95% CI, 1.53-7.25), shoulders (HR = 2.21; 95% CI, 1.17-4.21), and trunk (HR = 5.60; 95% CI, 2.28-13.70)., Conclusion: The association between the sport type and pain occurrence is evident even when controlling for confounding factors.

Background: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is characterised as a chronic inflammatory disease of the axial skeleton. The force platform is an option for performing the postural assessment of these individuals., Objectives: To review and evaluate the behaviour of the centre of pressure (CoP) variables during the postural control examination in patients with AS compared to a control group., Method: A systematic review, registered in PROSPERO, that followed the PRISMA Statement. A search was carried out in the following databases: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and Scielo, from 1945 to 2023. Studies were selected that aimed to understand the use of the force platform for the assessment of postural control. The risk of bias assessment was performed using the AXIS tool., Results: Five studies were included, with a total of 247 participants. The assessment of risk of bias presented high scores in the AXIS tool. Patients with a diagnosis of AS presented increased thoracic kyphosis in most of the studies, as well as large displacements in the anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions, and altered total mean velocity (TMV) and frequency, indicating worse postural stability. Regarding the functional status, the most used questionnaires were the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index (BASMI) and Bath Ankylosing Disease Activity Index (BASDAI)., Conclusion: Patients with ankylosing spondylitis present postural instability, verified by means of higher values of centre of posture variables., Clinical Implications: Individuals with ankylosing spondylitis presented postural instability and balance deficit. Therefore, exercises for balance training and postural control are essential in the clinical management of these patients., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© 2024. The Authors.)

Background: There is large variation in administration of performance-based, dynamic balance measures among adults with lower-limb amputation (LLA). Further, there has been limited exploration of test-retest reliability of these measures in adults with lower-limb loss, including whether there is a difference in reliability if one records "best" vs "average" performance across trials., Objective: To determine test-retest reliability of several balance tests for both "best" and "average" score performance in community-dwelling adults with a unilateral LLA, including quantification of the precision of individual scores (SE of the measurement, SEM) and estimates of minimal detectable change (MDC 90 )., Design: Cross-sectional study., Setting: Mobile research laboratory., Participants: 27 participants (55.5% female) with an average age of 51 (SD = 12.2) years, who were predominantly community-ambulators (92.5%), after a unilateral transtibial (n = 20), transfemoral (n = 5), or other major lower-extremity (n = 2) amputation, were included. Median time since amputation was 6.3 (2.3, 19 [25th, 75th interquartile range]) years., Methods: Reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) models (3,1 or 3,k). SEMs and MDC 90 values with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated., Main Outcome Measures: 360 o Turn Test, 5 Times Sit-To-Stand, Functional Reach Test, Figure-of-8 Walk Test, and Four Square Step Test (FSST)., Results: The ICCs (3,1 or 3,k) for all tests (for both "best" and "average" performance) were considered good-to-excellent and CIs varied from 0.69 (95% CI = 0.40-0.85) to 0.97 (95% CI = 0.95-0.99). For most tests, "best" and "average" performance demonstrated similar ICC values. MDC 90 values did not surpass 10% of test means for any of the measures., Conclusions: The dynamic balance measures evaluated for use among community-dwelling adults with a unilateral LLA demonstrated excellent reliability, along with high precision of scores and MDC values that did not exceed 10% of testing means. Either best or average scoring may be used when administering the majority of these tests, as long as the assessment method is appropriately documented and replicated at follow-up to allow direct comparisons. With the FSST, clinicians should consider taking the average of two FSST trials., Level of Evidence: III., (© 2018 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.)

Introduction: Physical conditioning consists of a variety of health-related attributes and Pilates exercises are described as a form of this conditioning. The objective of this systematic review was to determine the effect of the Pilates method on health and ability outcome of the physical conditioning of healthy individuals., Evidence Acquisition: The search was performed in the following databases: Medline, Cinahl, Embase, Lilacs, Scielo, Web of Science, PEDro, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register Library, Scopus, Science Direct and Google Scholar. (1950-2014). Included studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed the effects of the Pilates method on healthy subjects., Evidence Synthesis: Nine RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Pilates improved abdominal muscular endurance when compared with no exercises (mean difference [MD]=9.53%; 95% CI: 2.41, 16.43; P=0.009), however, there was no difference in flexibility (MD=4.97; 95% CI: -0.53, 10.47; P=0.08). Some positive effects (up to 6 months) of the Pilates practice were found in some RCTs' results as follows: Improvement of dynamic balance, quality of life and back muscle flexibility., Conclusions: The results indicate the Pilates exercises performed on the mat or apparatus 2 to 3 times a week, for 5 to 12 weeks, improves abdominal muscular endurance (on average, 10 more abdominals curls in 1-minute sit-up test) for both genders, when compared to no exercises.

Background: Pre-activation of antagonistic muscles is used in different modalities of exercise and neuromuscular rehabilitation protocols, but its effectiveness is still controversial., Objective: To verify the impact of two different methods of pre-activation of knee antagonist muscles in the neuromuscular performance and electromyographic activity of knee extensors., Methods: Fifteen healthy men (23.9±4.2 years of age, 1.78±0.08 meters and 81.4±10.7 kg) performed, on different days, two protocols of isokinetic muscle contraction with 4 sets of 10 repetitions at 60°.s-1 and 1 minute between sets: (1) Reciprocal Contraction (RC): reciprocal concentric exercise of agonist/antagonist muscles (knee flexion [KF] immediately followed by knee extension [KE]) and (2) Superset (SS): alternated concentric exercise of agonist/antagonist muscles (KF set followed by a set of KE). A repeated measures ANOVA with least-significant difference post-hoc test was used to detect differences between protocols., Results: There were no significant differences between protocols (p>0.05) for peak torque (PT) and total work (Tw). On the SS protocol there was a significant decrease in Tw on the last two sets (p<0.05) while for RC the decrease occurred only in the last set. There were no significant differences of root mean square (RMS) between protocols, but the activation pattern was more uniform during the RC protocol., Conclusion: The results indicated that the peak torque was not influenced by the different pre-activation methods. However, the RC protocol appears to better maintain the total work training volume.

Background: Obesity is linked to high blood pressure (HBP) in childhood. However, the role of fat as a predictor of HBP in adolescents remains unknown., Objective: To investigate the association between general and abdominal obesity with HBP and to identify the sensitivity and specificity of these indicators to detect HBP in adolescents., Methods: The sample was composed of 1,021 adolescents aged 10-17 years. Subjects were classified as normal, overweight/obese, according to BMI measurements, and as non-obese and with abdominal obesity, according to waist circumference (WC) measurements. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure were assessed using an oscillometric device. Logistic regression and ROC curves were used in the statistical analysis., Results: The overall prevalence of HBP was 11.8% (13.4% in boys and 10.2% in girls). The prevalence of HBP among general overweight/obese boys and girls was 10% and 11.1%, respectively. The prevalence of HBP among boys with abdominal obesity was 28.6%. For both genders, the odds ratio (OR) for HBP was higher in abdominal obesity than in general overweight/obesity (4.09 [OR(95%CI) = 2.57-6.51]) versus 1.83 [OR(95%CI) = 1.83-4.30]). The OR for HBP was higher when general overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity were clustered (OR = 4.35 [OR(95%CI) = 2.68-7.05]), than when identified by either general overweight/obesity or abdominal obesity alone (OR = 1.32 [OR(95%CI) = 0.65-2.68]). However, both types of obesity had low predictive power in HBP detection., Conclusion: General and abdominal obesity were associated to HBP, however, the sensitivity and specificity of these variables to detect HBP are low in Brazilian adolescents.