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The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of landvs. aquatic based plyometric training programs on the drop jump, repeated jump performance and muscle damage. Sixty-five male students were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups: aquatic plyometric training group (APT), plyometric training group (PT) and control group (CG). Both experimental groups trained twice a week for 10 weeks performing the same number of sets and total jumps. The following variables were measured prior to, halfway through and after the training programs: creatine kinase (CK) concentration, maximal height during a drop jump from the height of 30 (DJ30) and 50 cm (DJ50), and mean height during a repeated vertical jump test (RJ). The training program resulted in a significant increase (P < 0.01-0.001) in RJ, DJ30, and DJ50 for PT, whereas neither APT nor CG reached any significant improvement APT showed likely/possibly improvements on DJ30 and DJ50, respectively. Greater intra-group Effect Size in CK was found for PT when compared to APT. In conclusion, although APT seems to be a safe alternative method for reducing the stress produced on the musculoskeletal system by plyometric training, PT produced greater gains on reactive jumps performance than APT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presenta una carta al editor acerca del artículo "Body fat assessment by bioelectrical impedance and its correlation with anthropometric indicators," publicado en un número anterior de la revista.

Performance is usually assessed by simple indices stemming from cardiac and respiratory data measured during graded exercise test. The goal of this study is to characterize the indices produced by a dynamical analysis of HR and VO2 for different effort test protocols, and to estimate the construct validity of these new dynamical indices by testing their links with their standard counterparts. Therefore, two groups of 32 and 14 athletes from two different cohorts performed two different graded exercise testing before and after a period of training or deconditioning. Heart rate (HR) and oxygen consumption (VO2) were measured. The new dynamical indices were the value without effort, the characteristic time and the amplitude (gain) of the HR and VO2 response to the effort. The gain of HR was moderately to strongly associated with other performance indices, while the gain for VO2 increased with training and decreased with deconditioning with an effect size slightly higher than VO2 max. Dynamical analysis performed on the first 2/3 of the effort tests showed similar patterns than the analysis of the entire effort tests, which could be useful to assess individuals who cannot perform full effort tests. In conclusion, the dynamical analysis of HR and VO2 obtained during effort test, especially through the estimation of the gain, provides a good characterization of physical performance, robust to less stringent effort test conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of fat mass (FM) is of great interest for people with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) given that morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease are greater and occur earlier in this group. Furthermore, it may play a key role improving physical performance in athletes with SCI. For the reasons already mentioned, the current study was designed to compare different methods for assessing FM in athletes with SCI. A secondary objective was to identify a predictive equation for FM in this group that is easily reproducible elsewhere. A total of 8 male athletes with complete SCI at or below the 5th thoracic level (T5) competing in a national league volunteered for this study. The percentage of FM was assessed by three different methods: conventional anthropometry (Siri equation), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and densitometry (DEXA). This research was conducted in full accordance with ethical principles, including the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (version, 2002). Furthermore, the present protocol was approved by an Institutional Ethics Committee. Mean percentage of FM assessed by DXA was 28.76±9.16%. Moreover, Bland- Altman plots suggested conventional anthropometry and BIA underestimated fat mass percentage in this group. Lastly, a predictive equation for fat mass was established as follows: FM (%)=1.9197 (triceps skinfold thickness (mm))+6.5063. It was concluded that both conventional anthropometry and BIA underestimated fat mass in athletes with chronic SCI. Furthermore, a predictive equation of fat mass was recommended for this group due to its low cost and wide availability in any clinical setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study was conducted to identify potential correlations between abdominal fat mass obtained by DXA and several parameters obtained by anthropometric conventional techniques as well as lipid profile in postmenopausal women with MS. This historical cohort study included a total of 1326 postmenopausal women aged > 45 years old who had routinely undergone DXA to measure their bone mineral density between January 2006 and January 2011. The regions of interest envisaged in our study by using DXA were the lumbar regions L1-L4 and L4-L5. At the same time, they underwent a complete medical examination including personal medical history assessment, biochemical blood analysis, blood pressure measurements and anthropometrical evaluation. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed attending to the criteria established by National Cholesterol Education Program Adult The current study was conducted to identify potential correlations between abdominal fat mass obtained by DXA and several parameters obtained by anthropometric conventional techniques as well as lipid profile in postmenopausal women with MS. This historical cohort study included a total of 1326 postmenopausal women aged > 45 years old who had routinely undergone DXA to measure their bone mineral density between January 2006 and January 2011. The regions of interest envisaged in our study by using DXA were the lumbar regions L1-L4 and L4-L5. At the same time, they underwent a complete medical examination including personal medical history assessment, biochemical blood analysis, blood pressure measurements and anthropometrical evaluation. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed attending to the criteria established by National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NECP-ATP-III). This protocol was approved by an Institutional Ethics Committee. Several significant correlations were found between DXA and indices of body fat distribution as well as lipid profile. The strongest correlations were found between fat mass L1-L4 and waist circumference (r= 0.77; p= 0.0016) and levels of HDL-cholesterol (r= -0.58; p= 0.0290). It was concluded that waist circumference and HDL-cholesterol may be recommended to predict fat mass in regions of interest L1-L4 and L3-L4 in postmenopausal women with MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]