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Nature-based adventure (NBA) interventions can be broadly understood as any intervention of adventure occurring in a natural setting not necessarily involving a licensed mental health professional. Evidence suggests that some NBA interventions improve people's health. Although encouraging, the strength of this evidence is often impaired by the non-random allocation of participants to groups and the lack of comparison groups. These design limitations need additional care during data analysis. Moreover, some studies of NBA interventions omit necessary information for the interpretation of their results, which may lead to inaccurate conclusions and hinder replicability. To exemplify these analytical and reporting issues, we evaluated all quantitative studies assessing the effect of an NBA intervention published in the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning from 2019 to 2021. We provide suggestions to improve the analysis of studies of NBA interventions and discuss the need to report these necessary elements in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of progressive overload in resistance training on muscle strength and cross-sectional area (CSA) by specifically comparing the impact of increasing load (LOADprog) versus an increase in repetitions (REPSprog). We used a within-subject experimental design in which 39 previously untrained young persons (20 men and 19 women) had their legs randomized to LOADprog and REPSprog. Outcomes were assessed before and after 10 weeks of training. Muscle strength was assessed using the one repetition maximum (1RM) test on the leg extension exercise, and the CSA of the vastus lateralis was assessed by ultrasonography. Both protocols increased 1RM values from pre (LOADprog: 52.90±16.32 kg; REPSprog: 51.67±15.84 kg) to post (LOADprog: 69.05±18.55 kg, REPSprog: 66.82±17.95 kg), with no difference between them (P +>+0.05). Similarly, both protocols also increased in CSA values from pre (LOADprog: 21.34±4.71 cm²; REPSprog: 21.08±4.62 cm²) to post (LOADprog: 23.53±5.41 cm², REPSprog: 23.39±5.19 cm²), with no difference between them (P +>+0.05). In conclusion, our findings indicate that the progression of overload through load or repetitions can be used to promote gains in strength and muscle hypertrophy in young men and women in the early stages of training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Manual reconstruction (MR) of the vastus lateralis (VL) muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) from sequential ultrasound (US) images is accessible, is reproducible, and has concurrent validity with magnetic resonance imaging. However, this technique requires numerous controls and procedures during image acquisition and reconstruction, making it laborious and time-consuming. The aim of this study was to determine the concurrent validity of VL CSA assessments between MR and computer vision-based automated reconstruction (AR) of CSA from sequential images of the VL obtained by US., Methods: The images from each sequence were manually rotated to align the fascia between images and thus visualize the VL CSA. For the AR, an artificial neural network model was utilized to segment areas of interest in the image, such as skin, fascia, deep aponeurosis, and femur. This segmentation was crucial to impose necessary constraints for the main assembly phase. At this stage, an image registration application, combined with differential evolution, was employed to achieve appropriate adjustments between the images. Next, the VL CSA obtained from the MR ( n = 488) and AR ( n = 488) techniques was used to determine their concurrent validity., Results: Our findings demonstrated a low coefficient of variation (CV) (1.51%) for AR compared with MR. The Bland-Altman plot showed low bias and close limits of agreement (+1.18 cm 2 , -1.19 cm 2 ), containing more than 95% of the data points., Conclusions: The AR technique is valid compared with MR when measuring VL CSA in a heterogeneous sample., (Copyright © 2024 by the American College of Sports Medicine.)