A comparison of physiological intensity and psychological perceptions during three different group exercise formats.

Introduction: Past research highlighted that group fitness is an ideal format to meet exercise prescription guidelines. To add, a group enhances exertion, enjoyment, and satisfaction. In the last five years, streaming (live classes on screen with other participants visible) and on demand (pre-recorded classes on screen without other participants visible) formats have grown in popularity.

Adult outdoor group sport play during a pandemic: Feasibility, acceptability, and program adherence results from a study of modifications to mitigate COVID-19 risk.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and short-term adherence to an adult outdoor group sport play program designed to maximize enjoyment that was modified to incorporate COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies. We enrolled 17 healthy, but sedentary, central Pennsylvania adults (  = 31.6 ± 7.

Comparative effectiveness of an adult social physical play versus traditional group exercise program for adherence and fitness: Protocol for a randomized-controlled trial.

Despite the myriad benefits associated with regular physical activity (PA), few American adults accrue sufficient weekly PA. Although "lack of time" is often cited as a correlate of physical inactivity, a growing body of evidence suggests that, perhaps more importantly, people allocate their leisure-time to activities they find more enjoyable than PA. These findings underscore the need to devise physical activities that will be chosen over other enjoyable, but less healthy, behavioral alternatives.

Exercise Time and Intensity: How Much Is Too Much?

Unlabelled: The growing prevalence and popularity of interval training necessitate additional guidelines in regard to maximal levels of time and intensity.

Purpose: To correlate salivary hormones and time in varying heart-rate (HR) zones. The hypothesis was that chronic exercise durations >9% of total exercise time in the >90% maximum HR zone would lead to decreased variation in salivary cortisol concentration after exercise in a 2-bout high-intensity protocol compared with less or more time in this zone.

Perceptions of groupness during fitness classes positively predict recalled perceptions of exertion, enjoyment, and affective valence: An intensive longitudinal investigation.

Group contexts such as fitness classes are popular forms of physical activity, and studying them can uncover new ways to promote exercise adherence. Focusing on the potential for group fitness experiences to vary from class-to-class, we examined how exercisers' dynamic perceptions of groupness relate to recalled perceptions of exercise enjoyment, affective valence, and exertion. These outcome variables are in focus because they are theoretically construed to be determinants of physical activity.

An integrated core training program improves joint symmetry and metabolic economy in trained runners.

Background: Over 60 million Americans participate in running as a form of exercise or sport annually, making it the most popular form of physical activity in the country. Although there are numerous health benefits from a regular running routine, it is also an activity associated with a high risk of injury. Multiple factors, such as core muscle weakness and stride asymmetry, contribute to running injuries and loss of performance.

Group structure and entitativity in group fitness: considering groupness at within- and between-group levels.

Objective: How can we distinguish between a collection of individuals exercising alongside one another from group that is exercising 'together'? This question is central to research on the extent that individuals perceive their fitness settings to entail core features of groups. To advance understanding of the nature of groupness and its implications in exercise, the current study (a) evaluated a brief measure of groupness and (b) examined the extent that groupness predicted perceptions of exertion and affect.

Design: Participants included 633 exercisers (M = 33.

Muscle Activity Patterns do not Differ Between Push-Up and Bench Press Exercises.

Popular topics for upper-body resistance training involve the differences between hand positions, open versus closed chain exercises, and movement variations for the novice to the advanced. It was hypothesized that there will be no difference between closed (push-up) versus open (bench press) chain exercises for the primary muscle group activity nor would there be a difference between push-ups on the toes versus knees with respect to the percent contribution of each muscle. Surface muscle activity was measured for 8 upper-body and core muscles during a sequence of push-up and bench press variations with a normalized weight for 12 active men.

Ingestion of transient receptor potential channel agonists attenuates exercise-induced muscle cramps.

Introduction: Exercise-associated muscle cramping (EAMC) is a poorly understood problem that is neuromuscular in origin. Ingestion of transient receptor potential (TRP) channel agonists has been efficacious in attenuating electrically induced muscle cramps. This study examines the effect of TRP agonist ingestion on voluntarily induced EAMC and motor function.

Ramp Angle, Not Plateau Height, Influences Transition Strategies.

In a previous study, we found that participants modified how they transitioned onto and off of ramp configurations depending upon the incline. While the transition strategies were originally attributed to ramp angles, it is possible that the plateau influenced the strategies since the final surface height also differed. Ultimately, for the current study, we hypothesized that an individual's transition strategies would have significant main effects for ramp angle, but not plateau height.

Low load, high repetition resistance training program increases bone mineral density in untrained adults.

Background: High load, low repetition resistance training increases BMD in untrained adults; however, many older and untrained adults cannot maintain this type of strenuous program. Our goal was to evaluate whether a low load, high repetition resistance training program would increase BMD in untrained adults.

Methods: Twenty sedentary, but otherwise healthy, adults (6 men and 14 women, age 28-63 yrs) completed a 27-week group exercise program.

Perceptions of the activity, the social climate, and the self during group exercise classes regulate intrinsic satisfaction.

Engaging in regular physical activity is a challenging task for many adults. Intrinsic satisfaction with exercise classes is thought to promote adherence to physical activity. This study examined the characteristics of exercise classes that impact within-person changes in intrinsic satisfaction over the course of an extended group exercise program.

Older Adult Hill Transition Strategies are Determined by Task Demands and Cautious Gait Patterns.

Falls are the leading cause of injury for all age groups. However, adults over 65 are at a higher risk, with one-third falling each year. Transitioning between level and hill surfaces poses a greater fall risk than walking on either surface alone.

The regulation of limb stiffness in the context of locomotor tasks.

Locomotion on ramped surfaces requires modulation of both pattern generating circuits and limb stiffness. In order to meet the mechanical demands of locomotion under these conditions, muscular activation patterns must correspond to the appropriate functions, whether the muscles are serving as force generators or brakes. Limb stiffness is a critical mechanical property that determines how the body interacts with the environment, and is regulated by both intrinsic and neural mechanisms.

Segment lengths influence hill walking strategies.

Segment lengths are known to influence walking kinematics and muscle activity patterns. During level walking at the same speed, taller individuals take longer, slower strides than shorter individuals. Based on this, we sought to determine if segment lengths also influenced hill walking strategies.

Pregnant women exaggerate cautious gait patterns during the transition between level and hill surfaces.

Falls are the leading cause of nonfatal injury across all age groups and a common incident for pregnant women. Thus, there is a critical demand for research to evaluate if walking strategies in pregnant women change throughout pregnancy in order to effectively intervene and minimize the incidence rate. The aim of the present study was to analyze modifications in temporal-spatial parameters as well as muscle activity during hill walking transitions in pregnant women between gestational week 20 and 32.

Preferred step frequency during downhill running may be determined by muscle activity.

It is well established that metabolic cost is minimized at an individual's running preferred step frequency (PSF). It has been proposed that the metabolic minimum at PSF is due to a tradeoff between mechanical factors, however, this ignores muscle activity, the primary consumer of energy. Thus, we hypothesized that during downhill running, total muscle activity would be greater with deviations from PSF.

Learning to be economical: the energy cost of walking tracks motor adaptation.

Many theories of motor control suggest that we select our movements to reduce energy use. However, it is unclear whether this process underlies short-term motor adaptation to novel environments. Here we asked whether adaptation to walking on a split-belt treadmill leads to a more economical walking pattern.

Altering footwear type influences gait during level walking and downhill transitions.

The purpose of our study was to determine if altering the insoles within footwear or walking barefoot, as an attempt to increase or decrease cutaneous stimuli, would improve dynamic balance during a hill-walking task. We hypothesize that compared with foam insoles or iced bare feet, textured insoles or bare feet will result in greater speeds, longer step lengths, narrower step width, shorter stance time, and less tibialis anterior (TA), soleus (SOL), and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) activity during key gait cycle phases. Ten, healthy college students, 5 men and 5 women, completed the protocol that consisted of level walking and downhill transition walking in five different footwear insole or barefoot conditions.

Neandertal humeri may reflect adaptation to scraping tasks, but not spear thrusting.

Unique compared with recent and prehistoric Homo sapiens, Neandertal humeri are characterised by a pronounced right-dominant bilateral strength asymmetry and an anteroposteriorly strengthened diaphyseal shape. Remodeling in response to asymmetric forces imposed during regular underhanded spear thrusting is the most influential explanatory hypothesis. The core tenet of the "Spear Thrusting Hypothesis", that underhand thrusting requires greater muscle activity on the right side of the body compared to the left, remains untested.

Walking strategies change with distance from hill transition and scale with hill angle.

Individuals must constantly modify their gait patterns to safely transition between different surfaces. The goal of the current study was to determine if gait changes could be detected two steps from a transition, and whether these changes scaled with the angle of the hill. We hypothesized that during the anticipation of uphill walking and the aftereffect of downhill walking, the magnitude of kinetic and electromyography changes would be greatest at steep hill angles and fewer steps from the transition.

Child temporal-spatial gait characteristics and variability during uphill and downhill walking.

Purpose: Gait maturation, evidenced in, for example, the ability to walk over nonlevel surfaces, is an important indicator of typical development in children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the walking strategies used by children and adults during hill walking.

Methods: Temporal-spatial gait parameters and trial-to-trial coefficient of variation of these parameters were compared between 30 children (aged 3.

The role of elastic energy storage and recovery in downhill and uphill running.

In level running, humans and other animals store and recover elastic energy during each step. What role does elastic energy play during downhill and uphill running? We measured the fluctuations of the mechanical energy of the center of mass (CoM) of 15 human participants running at 3 m s(-1) on the level, downhill and uphill on a force-measuring treadmill mounted at 3, 6 and 9 deg. In level running, nearly symmetrical decreases and increases of the combined gravitational potential and kinetic (GPE+KE) energy of the CoM indicated equal possible elastic energy storage and recovery.

Integration core exercises elicit greater muscle activation than isolation exercises.

The American College of Sports Medicine and the United States Department of Health and Human Services advocate core training as a means to improve stability, reduce injury, and maintain mobility. There are countless exercises that target the primary core trunk muscles (abdominal and lumbar) with the aim of providing these benefits. However, it is unknown as to which exercises elicit the greatest activation thereby maximizing functional gains and peak performance.

Muscle activity patterns of the tensor fascia latae and adductor longus for ramp and stair walking.

Walking on both outdoor and indoor surfaces requires the ability to negotiate connections between vertical distances, simply known as hills and stairs. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the muscle activity patterns of the TFL and ADL during both hill and stair walking. We hypothesized that TFL and ADL activity during initial swing, initial stance, and late stance of up-ramp and up-stair walking would be greater than level walking.