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Fitness Levels (fitness + level)
Selected AbstractsPsychological Stress and Oxidative Damage in Lymphocytes of Aerobically Fit and Unfit Individuals,JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008Kelly Z. Knickelbein Habitual aerobic exercise has a beneficial effect on many systems of the body, and psychological stress has a negative influence on several of the same systems. One possible pathway is through those systems that account for the detrimental effects of stress; by buffering these harmful effects, exercise may reduce the consequences of stress. This study examined increased resistance of cells to stress-induced oxidative damage as a result of fitness. Forty healthy participants were assigned to either a stress group or a no-stress control group, and measures of stress and oxidative damage were collected. Variation in fitness level across participants was also measured. Oxidative damage increased as a function of stress, but this was not buffered by fitness level. These results should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size and the limited variability of cardiorespiratory fitness levels in the sample. [source] High fitness is associated with a healthier programming of body composition at adolescenceAMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2008Francisco B. Ortega The programming effect of birth weight on later body composition has become of increasing interest in recent years. This programming effect is affected by factors such as gender. Physical fitness could be another factor of influence. This study aimed to examine whether handgrip strength (HG) or cardiovascular fitness (CVF) modify the associations between birth weight and body composition in adolescents. A sample of 1,740 (942 females) adolescents aged 13 to 18.5 years, born at more than 35 weeks of gestation, from the AVENA study was studied. Waist circumference was measured, percentage body fat was calculated from skinfold thicknesses and fat free mass was derived by subtracting fat mass from total body weight. HG and CVF were assessed using the HG test and the 20 m shuttle run test, respectively. Birth weight was positively associated with fat free mass in females with high (above the median) CVF (P < 0.001), but not in those with low (below the median) CVF. In contrast, birth weight was positively associated with total and central adiposity in males with low HG (both P = 0.002), but not in those with high HG. These results suggest that the programming effect of birth weight on later body composition is dependent on gender and fitness level. A high birth weight may have a healthy programming effect on body composition in those adolescents with a high fitness level, being associated with increased fat free mass levels in females and not showing the increased adiposity levels observed in unfit males. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Personal and non-occupational risk factors and occupational injury/illnessAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 4 2006Brian N. Craig PhD Abstract Background The materials handling industry performs is an essential function in the world economy, however, it is plagued with occupationally related injuries and illnesses. Understanding the risk factors may assist this industry in alleviating these injuries and illnesses, as well as their associated costs. Methods Forty-eight personal and non-occupational risk factors were measured and evaluated for statistically significant relationships with occupational injury in 442 volunteer manual material handlers who worked for three different companies, at nine US locations, with 15 different job descriptions. OSHA 200 logs were used to ascertain evidence of occupational injury within this population for 1 year after the testing and measurement was completed. Results Higher occurrences of injury were significantly associated with six risk factors in the univariate model (odds ratios 1.51,4.00). The significantly (P,<,0.05) related risk factors in the univariate model were aerobic power, smoking status, perceived fitness level, fishing/hunting as a hobby, speed limit obeyance, and witnessing or being involved in a violent fight. In the multivariate analysis, five risk factors (aerobic power, smoking status, percent body fat, body mass index, and sit-and-reach measured flexibility) were significantly (P,<,0.05) associated with occupational injury. Odds ratios in the multivariate analysis varied from 1.42 to 10.11. Conclusion Evidence of an association of occupational injury occurrence with certain risk factors presented in personal and non-occupational univariate and multivariate models is shown. In industry, effective injury reduction programs should go beyond traditional methods of job-related ergonomic risk factors and include personal factors such as smoking, weight control, and alcohol abuse. Am. J. Ind. Med. 49:249,260, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] A 3-year longitudinal analysis of changes in fitness, physical activity, fatness and screen timeACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 1 2010L Aires Abstract Aim:, To analyse whether changes in physical activity index (PAI), screen time (ST: television, computer) and body mass index (BMI) made a contribution to longitudinal changes in fitness of children and adolescents. Additionally, we analysed the interaction between baseline fitness level and changes in fitness. Methods:, This is a 3-year longitudinal study of 345 high school students aged 11,19 years. Students performed curl-ups, push-ups and 20-m shuttle run tests from Fitnessgram. PA and ST were evaluated using a standard questionnaire. Standardized scores of fitness tests were summed. Changes over time were calculated as ,1 (2007 minus 2006), ,2 (2008 minus 2007) and ,3 (2008 minus 2006). Results:, Changes in PAI were positively and independently associated with changes in fitness in ,1, ,2 and ,3. Changes in BMI were negatively associated with changes in fitness in ,3. Participants highly fit at baseline were those who showed positive changes in PAI over ,3, decreased changes in ST and had the lowest increase in BMI over 3 years compared with those low-fit at baseline. Conclusions:, Changes in BMI were associated with changes in fitness over 3 years. However, changes in PAI were the best predictor for changes in fitness in each year and over the 3 years of evaluation in youth. [source] Physical fitness levels of persons with cerebral palsyDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 3 2001James H Rimmer PhD First page of article [source] The effects of exercise during hemodialysis on adequacyHEMODIALYSIS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2005C. Caner Pedalling during hemodialysis (HD) has been shown to increase solute clearance in a previous study. In the present study, we aimed to test whether an easy to perform exercise program, not requiring a special device, could yield similar outcomes. Fifteen HD patients with the mean age of 48.4 ± 3.8 years were enrolled into the study. Patients with significant access recirculation (>10%), moderate to severe coronary artery disease, moderate to severe heart failure, severe chronic obstructive lung disease, and history of lower extremity surgery during last three month period were excluded. All patients were studied on two consecutive HD sessions with identical prescriptions. At the first session, standard HD was applied without exercise, whereas in the second session lower extremity exercise of 30 minutes duration was added. Reduction rates and rebound for urea, creatinine, and potassium and Kt/V were calculated. Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied in analysis and p < 0.05 was accepted as significance level. All patients completed the study. When both sessions were compared, mean arterial blood pressure (97 ± 3 mmHg vs 120 ± 4 mmHg, p < 0.001) and heart rate (77 ± 1 beats/min vs 92 ± 3 beats/min, p < 0.001) were higher in the exercise group. On the other hand, urea reduction rates, rebound values of urea, creatinine, and potassium were similar in both groups. Conclusion:,In the study, we did not observe any changes in solute rebound and clearance with the exercise. Shorter duration of the exercise may be the explanation of failure to achieve desired outcomes. Increasing patients' tolerance and fitness levels by means of steadily increasing exercise programs may be of help. Additionally, mode of exercise may also be responsible for different outcomes. [source] Multiscale multiresolution genetic algorithm with a golden sectioned population compositionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 3 2008Dae Seung Kim Abstract A new genetic algorithm (GA) strategy called the multiscale multiresolution GA is proposed for expediting solution convergence by orders of magnitude. The motivation for this development was to apply GAs to a certain class of large optimization problems, which are otherwise nearly impossible to solve. For the algorithm, standard binary design variables are binary wavelet transformed to multiscale design variables. By working with the multiscale variables, evolution can proceed in multiresolution; converged solutions at a low resolution are reused as a part of individuals of the initial population for the next resolution evolution. It is shown that the best solution convergence can be achieved if three initial population groups having different fitness levels are mixed at the golden section ratio. An analogy between cell division and the proposed multiscale multiresolution strategy is made. The specific applications of the developed method are made in topology optimization problems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Psychological Stress and Oxidative Damage in Lymphocytes of Aerobically Fit and Unfit Individuals,JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008Kelly Z. Knickelbein Habitual aerobic exercise has a beneficial effect on many systems of the body, and psychological stress has a negative influence on several of the same systems. One possible pathway is through those systems that account for the detrimental effects of stress; by buffering these harmful effects, exercise may reduce the consequences of stress. This study examined increased resistance of cells to stress-induced oxidative damage as a result of fitness. Forty healthy participants were assigned to either a stress group or a no-stress control group, and measures of stress and oxidative damage were collected. Variation in fitness level across participants was also measured. Oxidative damage increased as a function of stress, but this was not buffered by fitness level. These results should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size and the limited variability of cardiorespiratory fitness levels in the sample. [source] Resources and coping with stressful eventsJOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 6 2009Gil Luria This longitudinal, quasi-field experiment tested whether perceived stress and increase in perceived stress are related to the resources of the individual, namely, personality (core self evaluation scale (CSES)), physical fitness, social support (acceptance and/or rejection by peers), and cognitive abilities. Perceived stress scale (PSS) was administered at two points in time to participants in a two-day selection process for a military unit, whose stressful environment formed the manipulation in this study. Baseline PSS was obtained from soldiers before the selection activity, when threatened with resource loss. PSS was next administered during the selection activity, when individuals had to cope with actual loss of resources and difficulty in regaining them. As expected, participants perceived more stress during the selection activity. Participants with higher CSES, higher cognitive abilities and higher levels of social support perceived lower stress levels prior to the activity. The increase in stress level was lower for participants with better fitness levels, but greater for participants rejected by their peers. Exploratory analysis of resource overlap was conducted and revealed a contribution of few key resources to coping, even in the presence of other resources. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Fitness testing of pediatric liver transplant recipientsLIVER TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 3 2001Viswanath B. Unnithan PhD Liver transplantation is accepted as the standard management for end-stage liver disease in children. Pediatric heart and heart-lung transplant recipients have shown significantly diminished exercise capacities compared with age-matched, able-bodied, control subjects. The primary aim of this study is to compare the fitness levels of a group of pediatric liver transplant (LT) recipients (LT group, 20 boys, 9 girls; age, 8.9 ± 4.8 years; 56 ± 35 months posttransplantation) with a group of able-bodied control subjects (22 boys, 12 girls; age, 8.4 ± 3.8 years). The secondary aim is to compare the performance of the LT group against the Fitnessgram criterion standards. We assessed muscular endurance by means of a partial curl-up, flexibility by means of the back-saver sit and reach, and cardiorespiratory fitness by means of the progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run (PACER). The only significant (P < .05) difference between the 2 groups was the number of shuttles run in the PACER (control, 16.8 ± 9.8 v LT, 11.5 ± 8.4 shuttles). Other differences between the 2 groups were not significant. With regard to satisfying the Fitnessgram criterion standards, only 35% of the LT group achieved the standards for the partial curl-up, 88% of the LT group achieved the criterion standards for flexibility, and 0% achieved the standards for the PACER. These results indicate that the LT group has diminished exercise capacity. The origins of exercise limitations deserve further investigation. [source] | ||||||||||