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This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two school-based physical education (PE) programmes (exercise-based and games-based) compared with traditional PE, on health- and skill-related physical fitness components in children in Tirana, Albania. Participants were 378 first-grade (6.8 years) and 389 fourth-grade (9.8 years) children attending four randomly selected schools in Tirana. Twenty-four school classes within these schools were randomly selected (stratified by school and school grade) to participate as exercise group (EG), games group (GG) and control group (CG). Both EG and GG intervention programmes were taught by professional PE teachers using station/circuit teaching framework while CG referred to traditional PE school lessons by a general teacher. All programmes ran in parallel and lasted 5 months, having the same frequency (twice weekly) and duration (45 min). Heart rate (HR) monitoring showed that intensity during PE lessons was significantly higher in the intervention groups compared with control (P < 0.001). Both PE exercise- and games programmes significantly improved several health- and skill-related fitness indicators compared with traditional PE lessons (e.g. gross motor skill summary score: 9.4 (95% CI 7.9; 10.9) for exercise vs. control and 6.5 (95% CI 5.1; 8.1) for games vs. control, cardiorespiratory fitness: 2.0 ml O2 · min−1 · kg−1(95% CI 1.5; 2.4) for exercise vs. control and 1.4 ml O2 · min−1 · kg−1(95% CI 1.0; 1.8) for games vs. control). Furthermore, compared to games-based PE, exercise-based PE showed more positive changes in some gross motor coordination skills outcomes, coordination skills outcomes and cardiorespiratory fitness. The results from this study show that exercise- and games-based PE represents a useful strategy for improving health- and skill-related physical fitness in Albanian elementary school children. In addition, the study shows that exercise-based PE was more effective than games-based PE in improving gross motor function and cardiorespiratory fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine the influence of different types of exertion on immediate and delayed attention in 116 primary school children divided in three groups of exertion [cognitive exertion - CE (school curricular lesson), physical exertion - PE (traditional physical education lesson), mixed cognitive and physical exertion - CPE (coordinative physical education lesson)]. CPE was the combination of physical load due to the practice of physical exercises and of cognitive load requested to perform movement-based problem solving tasks requiring accurate timing, temporal estimations, temporal production, and spatial adjustments. Children's attentional capacity was tested before (pre) and after (at 0 min and at 50 min post) a CE, a PE, or a CPE lesson, using the d2-test of attention, and analyzed using a 3 × 3 × 2 mixed analysis of covariance with exertion type and time as within factors, gender as between factor, and baseline data as covariate. Effect sizes were calculated as partial eta squared (ƞ2). Results showed that participants' attentional performance was significantly affected by exertion type ( P < 0.0001), by time ( P < 0.0001) and by exertion type × time interactions ( P < 0.0001). The effect sizes ranged from medium (0.039) to large (0.437). Varying the type of exertion has different beneficial influences on the level of attention in school children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study were to estimate the difference in exercise intensity (METs), energy cost (EE) and gender diff erence between a typical salsa lesson (TSL), rueda de casino lesson (RCL), and salsa dancing at a night club (SDN). Subjects performed 1 pre-testing session and 3 testing conditions. During the pre-testing session height, weight and VO 2max were assessed. During the testing conditions all subjects performed 3 diff erent kinds of salsa dance. Heart rate was assessed during each dance condition. The exercise intensity of the 3 salsa dancing conditions was moderate ranging from 3.9 to 5.5 METs. A signifi cant diff erence between genders for HR peak (P = 0.01), max %HRR (P = 0.006) and mean EE (P = 0.02) were observed. Signifi cant gender × condition interactions for HR 2max (P = 0.03), mean %HRR (P = 0.02), mean METs (P = 0.02) and mean EE (P = 0.02) were found. In addition, a signifi cant main eff ect for each condition was found in all variables (P < 0.01). Our results showed that the exercise intensities of all 3 salsa dancing conditions were moderate. Findings showed some signifi cant diff erences in exercise intensity between males and females and within conditions. Salsa dancing could be useful in achieving a signifi cant training eff ect in people who have a low level of fi tness [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas experimental studies showed that in healthy trained subjects, the phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor (PDE-5i) sildenafil improves exercise capacity in hypoxia and not in normoxia, no studies on the effects of the long half-life PDE-5i tadalafil exist. In order to evaluate whether tadalafil influences functional parameters and performance during a maximal exercise test in normoxia, we studied 14 healthy male athletes in a double-blind cross-over protocol. Each athlete performed two tests on a cycle ergometer, both after placebo or tadalafil (at therapeutic dose: 20mg) administration. Oxygen consumption (O2), blood lactate, respiratory exchange ratio, rate of perceived exertion, arterial blood pressure (BP), heart frequency (HR) and oxygen pulse (O2/HR) were evaluated before exercise, at individual ventilatory and anaerobic thresholds (lVTand IAT), at O2max and during recovery. Compared to placebo, a single tadalafil administration significantly reduced systolic BP before and after exercise (p<0.05), decreased O2/HR at IVT (13.3±1.8 vs. 14.5±2.1 mL·beat-1 p=0.03), but did not modify individual O2max, IVT, or IAT. In healthy athletes, 20mg of tadalafil does not substantially influence physical fitness-related parameters, exercise tolerance, and cardiopulmonary responses to maximal exercise in normoxia; it remains to be verified if higher doses/prolonged use influence health and/or sport performance in field conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the exercise intensity during a typical grade five ballet lesson, thirty-nine dancers (13-16yrs) were divided into three different technical proficiency groups: low level (n = 13), intermediate level (n = 14), and high level (n = 12). A progressively incremented treadmill test was administered to determine V̇O2max, individual ventilatory threshold (IVT), and the individual anaerobic threshold (IAT). Oxygen uptake (902), heart rate (HR) and blood lactate (La) were then evaluated during a grade five ballet lesson. Oxygen uptake at IVT, IAT and maximal oxygen uptake were greater (p<0.05) in the high-level dancers indicating a higher level of fitness. HR and %V̇O2max obtained during the various exercises of the ballet lesson were similar among groups. During the ballet lesson, low technical level dancers had more V̇O2 and La values above (p < 0.05) the IAT than the other groups. Correlation analysis revealed that the number of exercises performed above IAT was positively related to anthropometric characteristics (BMI, %FM; r=0.36, p<0.05; r=0.46, p<0.01), negatively related to fitness parameters (V̇O2IVT, V̇O2IAT, V̇O2max; r between - 0.43 and - 0.69; p < 0.001) and to technical level (r= -0.70; p < 0.001 ). The subjects classified as having low technical abilities had lower fitness levels and performed more exercises above IAT than the more skilled dancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Puberty influences both the performance and the hormonal responses to exercise-related stress. We evaluated the distribution and the correlation between pubertal characteristics and the salivary cortisol (sC) and testosterone (sT) responses to acute physical exercise in young male athletes (13.4±2.1 yr. n= 110). The mean pre-exercise nmol. L1 sC and sT concentrations were 19.08±4.32 and 0.34±0.15 and increased to 21.27±5.51 and 0.41 ± 0.16 after a 90-mm training session (p <0.01). The sC concentration at rest was positively correlated with chronological age (p<0.01) and negatively correlated with fat % (p<0.05), whereas significant negative correlations of~sC and A5C% after exercise with age, pubertal stage and mean testis volume (p <0.05) were observed. The sT increase after exercise was correlated with chronological age, pubertal stage and pre-exercise sT levels (p <0.01), whereas the i~5T and MT% of increase were negatively correlated with chronological age and resting sT levels (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01). In the present study, we observed the presence of high inter-individual variability of different biological parameters (anthropometry, pubertal stage, hormones, etc.) within athletes selected by chronological age in the same class and the presence of significant correlations between chronological age, puberty and the steroid hormone responses to physical exercise. Our data suggest the need for different criteria in exercise prescription and selection of young athletes and in the evaluation of stress reactivity at puberty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aims of this study were to verify if a 5-week cognitive-motor training (CMT) using FitlightsTM induced changes in young adult judo athletes compared to a non-intervention group. Specifically, it was verified if CMT influenced executive functions (EFs), physical fitness and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. Additionally, athletes' competitive results were compared between groups., Method: Twenty-seven athletes (14 males and 13 females; age = 19.5 ± 2.0 years) were assigned to the Fitlight (FG) and control (CG) groups which performed 5 weeks of CMT, respectively, including 25 min per day of Fitlight training or traditional judo practice. All participants performed cognitive (flanker task and forward/backward digit span) and fitness tests (counter movement jump, handgrip test, dynamic and isometric chin up). In addition, BDNF was collected by saliva sampling and competitive results after the intervention period were considered., Results: RM-ANOVA showed significant differences in FG for the accuracy of flanker (p = 0.028) and backward digit span (p < 0.001). Moreover, significant differences in FG were found for relative dynamic chin up (p = 0.027) and counter movement jump (p = 0.05). In addition, a significant difference in FG was found for competitive results after the intervention period (p < 0.01).No significant differences were found for BDNF and other cognitive and fitness measures (p > 0.05)., Conclusion: A 5-week judo-specific CMT improved EFs and motor performance in élite judo athletes. It seems that CMT with Fitlight™ could be considered an additional support to coaches during the training period., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Although I am serving as associate editor for Heliyon I do not have any access to the reviewing process (Maurizio Bertollo) If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)