Asian Journal of Sports Medicine
Volume:11 Issue: 1, Mar 2020

Aerobic exercise and relaxing music induce parasympathetic activity over the heart. The combined effect of the two interventions was shown to reduce heart rate (HR), rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and anxiety levels.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of aerobic exercise along with music vs. only aerobic exercise, on the autonomic function of the heart during recovery in collegiate overweight and obese individuals.

Thirty-two collegiate overweight and obese individuals were recruited based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Random allocation of participants was done to the aerobic exercise group (n = 16) and aerobic exercise plus music group (n = 16). Each group performed 30 minutes/session, six times/week for four weeks. Pre and post measures of body composition, exercise HR, RPE, square root of mean squared difference between adjacent R-R intervals (RMSSD), interval differences between of adjacent R-R intervals > 50 ms derived from difference between consecutive RR intervals (NN50), low-frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), and LF/HF measures of heart rate variability (HRV) during recovery were recorded.

RMSSD (P = 0.003) and LF (P = 0.009) scores showed a significant difference at baseline. A significant time effect was found to be in HR (P < 0.001), RPE (< 0.001), NN50 (P = 0.001), HF (P = 0.016) and LF/HF score (P < 0.001) of HRV indicating difference between pre and post measures, while no difference was found in RMSSD and LF score. A significant group effect was found to be in HR (P = 0.016) and LF/HF score (P = 0.008), indicating the difference between the two groups.

Regular aerobic exercise, in conjunction with relaxing music, appears to confer a beneficial effect on the autonomic modulation during the post-exercise recovery period.

 Hong Kong students with physical disabilities were being seen as physically inactive compared with typically developed people or even people with other disabilities, such as visual impairment or intellectual disabilities. Lack of regular physical activity would lead to poor physical fitness, and yet is associated with a higher risk of being obese or other physical as well as mental health problems. Currently, a newly developed sport, sitting light volleyball, modified from the Paralympic sitting volleyball, is considered as suitable for disabled people with lower physical fitness, in which was able to increase fitness level and increase their physical activity.

 The current study aimed to examine the effect of sitting light volleyball in improving physical fitness among students with physical disabilities in Hong Kong.

 The current study was an interventional, quasi-experimental study. Nineteen participants, 8 males and 11 females, with the age of 18.5 on average (SD = 3.24), participated in the study. Two local special education schools were involved in the 10-week (65 minutes per session) sitting light volleyball intervention program. Participants took part in a fitness test before and after the intervention. The intended-to-treat approach was adopted throughout the data analysis, with the last observation carried forward method for managing the missing data.

 No significant changes in body composition outcomes of the participants were found. The non-parametric sign test showed significant median differences on dumbbell press test and flexibility test of the right shoulder before and after the intervention, with Z = 2.94, P = 0.003; Z = 2.20, P = 0.028, respectively.

 This indicated that the sitting light volleyball intervention was able to provide preliminary evidence on showing the enhancement of muscle endurance and flexibility of the students with physical disabilities. Whereas, intensified interventions should be done in the future to examine the possible changes in body composition as well as psychological health conditions.
 

High emotional intelligence (EI) seems to be preventive for unconventional sports behavior within competitions leading prevention of sport injuries and also minimization of giving penalty cards.

The present study aimed to examine this relationship among Iranian Premier League footballers.

This study was performed on Iranian professional soccer players participating in Premier League in 2014 - 2015 season. To assess emotional intelligence among athletes, the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence test (SSEIT) was employed. Sport-related injuries were recorded by the physician of each team. Also, the reports of the number of yellow and red cards for each athlete as well as for all teams in two phases (middle and end of each season) was recorded by the Football League Organization were reviewed and recorded. The chi-square test and t-test were used for comparing the variables. The Pearson’s correlation test and the multivariable regression model were also used for discovering association and relationship, respectively. P values of 0.05 or less were considered statistically significant.

Among different subscales of EI, only regulation of emotions was significantly different between injured and non-injured athletes (P = 0.04). Lower ability to regulate emotions was associated with higher risk for sport injuries (OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.79 - 0.98, P = 0.02). None of the subscales of EI was related to receiving yellow card, but utilizing emotions was adversely related to receiving red card. The association between utilizing emotions and receiving red card changed to insignificant after using the multivariable regression modeling.

By regulating emotions, sport-related injuries can be preventable in soccer players. However, EI may not be helpful in reducing sport fines.

 There are no previously reported studies on the health care intervention programs to manage knee pain among elite weightlifters.

 The current study investigated the effects of an eight week multimodal knee care intervention (MKCI) program on the intensity of knee pain (IKP), knee functional ability (KFA), pain free knee extension strength (P-KES), pain free single leg functional strength (P-SLS), pain free double leg functional strength (PDLS) and the quality of professional weightlifting (QOPL) among elite weightlifters.

 A total of eleven national Olympic weightlifters with knee pain (age: 21.55 ± 3.91 years, height: 161.09 ± 11.14 cm, and weight: 69.18 ± 15.99 kg) participated in a within subject, repeated measures, single blinded, self-controlled comparative study for a total period of 16 weeks. The first four weeks of the study was set as a self-controlled phase whereas the MKCI was started at the fourth week and continued over for a period of another eight weeks until 12th week. The IKP, KFA, P-KES, P-SLS and P-DLS and QOPL were measured repeatedly at first week (pre-baseline), fourth week (pre-intervention), 12th week (post-intervention) and 16th week (follow-up). Wilcoxon signed rank test and Friedman test were used to analyze the study measures.

 The IKP, KFA, P-KES, P-SLS and P-DLS significantly improved by 16th week when compared to fourth week (P < 0.05). The KSC improved significantly by 12th week and 16th week (P < 0.05). The QOPL showed a trend of improvement over the study period.

 MKCI was a feasible program which showed positive effects in improving IKP, KFA, P-KES, P-SLS, P-DLS and KSC among elite weightlifters with knee pain.

Adipokines, including vaspin and chemerin, have different biological roles associated with body mass index, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of 12 weeks of resistance exercises on serum levels of vaspin and chemerin in middle-aged obese women.

In this study, 20 inactive obese women with the mean and standard deviation of age and body mass index of 52.13 ± 10.06 and 30.87 ± 2.01 were divided into two groups of resistance (n = 10) and control (n = 10) exercises. Resistance exercise program included 3 sessions per week for 12 weeks (50% - 75%, one repetition maximun). Anthropometric indices, vaspin, and chemerin levels were measured before and after exercises.

The results suggested that changes in serum levels of chemerin and vaspin after 12 weeks of resistance exercises showed a significant difference compared to the control group (P = 0.001, P = 0.002).

It can be concluded that 12 weeks of resistance exercise is effective in reducing vaspin and chemerin and reducing body fat percentage in middle-aged obese women, and the response rate varies according to the type and duration of the exercise protocol.

Few descriptive epidemiological studies have investigated the prevalence and risk factors of hamstring strain injury in athletics.

To investigate the variations in the incidence of hamstring strain injury between seasons in track and field athletes, and further to investigate the relationship between environmental temperature and occurrence of hamstring strain injury.

We recruited track and field athletes and recorded information about hamstring strain injuries between January 2013 and December 2016. Each year was divided into four seasons (March - May: early-season; June - August: mid-season; September - November: late-season, and December - February: off-season), and the incidence of hamstring strain injury in each season was calculated. The incidence rate ratio for each season was calculated according to the temperature of the day when an injury was recorded.

In total, 183 hamstring strain injuries were recorded (16.98/100 person-years). The incidence was significantly higher in early-season (IRR = 2.23) than in other seasons. The incidences in mid- and late-seasons (IRR = 0.64, and 0.57, respectively) were significantly lower than those in other seasons. The very-high-temperature zone showed a significantly lower incidence of hamstring strain injuries (IRR = 0.53) than did other temperature zones. The lower-middle-temperature zone showed a significantly higher incidence of hamstring strain injury (IRR = 1.46) than the other temperature zones.

This study results suggest that hamstring strain injury is most likely to occur in early-season, possibly due to the low temperatures that characterize this season and the rapid increase of running speed required for subsequent competitions.

The present study aimed to determine the anthropometric indices and aerobic and cardiopulmonary capacity of Iranian elite female taekwondo athletes and also to investigate the relationship between the anthropometric indices and the cardiopulmonary capacity of this group of athletes at national and championship levels. For this purpose, 33 elite female taekwondo athletes (12 at national and 21 at championship levels) participated in this study. The body fat percentage was measured by body impedance analyzer, and cardiopulmonary evaluation was performed using an incremental exercise test. Mean height, BMI (body mass index), and the body fat percentage were determined as 169.86 ± 6.74 cm, 20.89 ± 2.57 kg.m-2, and 22.54 ± 5.44%, respectively. The rates of VO2max and VO2@AT% in the Cardiopulmonary Exercise testing (CPET) were 48.95 ± 7.11 mL/kg.min and 60.43 ± 6.43%, respectively. Correlation results showed that VO2max was negatively correlated with the body fat percentage (r = -0.50, P = 0.003), BMI (r = -0.40 P = 0.02), and weight (r = -0.35, P = 0.044). Furthermore, it was found that the age factor was negatively correlated with HRMAX in CPET test (r = -0.46, P = 0.007) and exercise hours per week (r = -0.37, P = 0.031). The findings of this study revealed that the rate of VO2max, as the index of aerobic capacity among elite female taekwondo athletes, was about 50 mL/kg.min. Normal BMI, which was similar to that of the other taekwondo elites in the world, and an acceptable body fat percentage were reported in our study, while the body fat percentage was relatively higher than that of the other elite female taekwondo athletes in the world.