Background: This study explored the deloading practices of competitive strength and physique athletes. A 55-item anonymised web-based survey was distributed to a convenience-based, cross-sectional sample of competitive strength and physique athletes (n = 246; males = 181 [73.6%], females = 65 [26.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Deloading is a ubiquitous yet under-researched strategy within strength and physique training. How deloading should be integrated into the training programme to elicit optimal training outcomes is unknown. To aid its potential integration, this study established consensus around design principles for integrating deloading in strength and physique training programmes using expert opinion and practical experience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Children and consumers are exposed to increasingly complex mixtures of known and as-yet-unknown toxic chemicals from toys and products. However traditional chemical analysis methods only evaluate a small number of chemicals at a time thereby restricting consumer awareness of the full range of potentially harmful chemicals in products.
Methods: We used high-throughput effect-based non-animal methods to investigate exposures to complex chemical mixtures of several kinds of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) for their dioxin- and thyroid hormone-like activities in various kinds of consumer products and toys from 26 different countries, on four continents (Africa, America, Asia and Europe) in combination with chemical analysis of various polybrominated flame retardants (BFRs) and their impurities (such as polyhalogenated PCDD/Fs and PBDD/Fs).
Deloading refers to a purposeful reduction in training demand with the intention of enhancing preparedness for successive training cycles. Whilst deloading is a common training practice in strength and physique sports, little is known about how the necessary reduction in training demand should be accomplished. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to determine current deloading practices in competitive strength and physique sports.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional overreaching (FOR) occurs when athletes experience improved athletic capabilities in the days and weeks following short-term periods of increased training demand. However, prolonged high training demand with insufficient recovery may also lead to non-functional overreaching (NFOR) or the overtraining syndrome (OTS). The aim of this research was to explore strength coaches' perceptions and experiences of planned overreaching (POR); short-term periods of increased training demand designed to improve athletic performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses linked prenatal exposure to ambient air pollutants to adverse birth outcomes with mixed findings, including results indicating positive, negative, and null associations across the pregnancy periods. The objective of this study was to systematically summarise systematic reviews and meta-analyses on air pollutants and birth outcomes to assess the overall epidemiological evidence. Systematic reviews with/without meta-analyses on the association between air pollutants (NO, CO, O, SO, PM, and PM) and birth outcomes (preterm birth; stillbirth; spontaneous abortion; birth weight; low birth weight, LBW; small-for-gestational-age) up to March 30, 2022 were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOptimal physical performance is achieved through the careful manipulation of training and recovery. Short-term increases in training demand can induce functional overreaching (FOR) that can lead to improved physical capabilities, whereas nonfunctional overreaching (NFOR) or the overtraining syndrome (OTS) occur when high training-demand is applied for extensive periods with limited recovery. To date, little is known about the OTS in strength sports, particularly from the perspective of the strength sport coach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Sports Physiol Perform
January 2021
Purpose: To provide details on the nature and symptomatic profile of training maladaptation in competitive resistance-based athletes to examine whether there are symptoms that may be used as prognostic indicators of overtraining. Identifying prognostic tools to assess for training maladaptation is essential for avoiding severe overtraining conditions.
Methods: A Web-based survey was distributed to a cross-sectional convenience sample of competitive athletes involved in sports with a significant resistance-training component.
Unlabelled: To date, little is known about overreaching (OR) and the overtraining syndrome (OTS) in strength sports and resistance training (RT) populations. However, the available literature may elucidate the occurrence of both conditions in these populations. A scoping review was conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlint Photovoice represents the work of 41 youths and adults recruited to use a participatory-action research approach to photographically document community assets and concerns, critically discuss the resulting images, and communicate with policymakers. At the suggestion of grassroots community leaders, we included policymakers among those asked to take photographs. In accordance with previously established photovoice methodology, we also recruited at the project's outset another group of policymakers and community leaders to provide political will and support for implementing photovoice participants' policy and program recommendations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Occup Environ Health
August 2003
The paper examines the rise of environmental justice issues in Australia, evident in two toxic disputes; the first, in a Perth outer suburb in Western Australia where residents faced both a hazardous waste dump and the nation's biggest chemical fire; and the second, in the Sydney suburb of Botany where residents were confronted with the destruction of what is thought to be, the world's largest stockpile of hazardous hexachlorobenzene (HCB) waste. The paper reviews the range of factors that impacted the local communities' fight for environmental justice. It explores the limitations of risk assessment and risk-based policies, as well as the problematic role of the expert and the communication of risk.
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