Publications by authors named "Stephen R Bird"

To identify gaps among Australian Long COVID support services and guidelines alongside recommendations for future health programs. Electronic databases and seven government health websites were searched for Long COVID-specific programs or clinics available in Australia as well as international and Australian management guidelines. Five Long COVID specific guidelines and sixteen Australian services were reviewed.

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Introduction: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of digitally delivered exercise classes to promote physical activity has become widespread amongst various populations as an alternative to in-person activities.

Objectives: To examine the feasibility, acceptability, and participant engagement variables to delivering Qi Gong and Tai Chi programs through telehealth interventions.

Methods: Ten databases (Seven English databases; three Chinese databases) were searched between October and November 2021.

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Background: The results of rehabilitation trials are often not fully attained when the intervention is implemented beyond the initial trial. One of the key reasons is that a patients' ability and/or capacity to take part in their own healthcare is not considered in the trial design yet has significant impact on the outcomes during the implementation phase.

Body Of Text: We propose a shift from a therapist-focus to patient-focus in trial design, through addressing patient engagement as a core consideration in trials.

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Background: Despite the proven benefits of exercise rehabilitation for numerous health conditions, musculoskeletal injuries and recovery from surgery, patient adherence to such programs is reported to often be less than 35%. Increasing patient engagement therefore has the potential to improve patient health outcomes, benefiting the patient, their carers and the services that support them. The aims of this review were to identify the factors that contribute to 'patient' engagement in prescribed exercise rehabilitation using the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation-behaviour) framework of behavioural analysis.

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Background: Success at the elite level in sport is often attributed to physical prowess, technical skill, and mental attitude. However, underpinning these factors are various lifestyle, support and social factors that may contribute to successful performance, but which may be absent from athlete development programs.

Methods: An online survey was used to investigate athlete perceptions of lifestyle practices and support services amongst 135 Australian Olympic, Paralympic, National, and state-level athletes across 25 Olympic sports.

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Long-term maintenance of changes in cardiovascular risk factors and physical capacity once patients leave the supervised program environment have not previously been reported. This study investigated the changes in physical capacity outcomes and cardiovascular risk factors in an Australian cardiac rehabilitation setting, and the maintenance of changes in these outcomes in the 12 months following cardiac rehabilitation attendance. Improvements in mean (95% CI) cardiorespiratory fitness (16.

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Progression of prescribed exercise is important to facilitate attainment of optimal physical capacity during cardiac rehabilitation. However, it is not clear how often exercise is progressed or to what extent. This study evaluated whether exercise progression during clinical cardiac rehabilitation was different between cardiovascular treatment, age, or initial physical capacity.

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Interval exercise training is increasingly recommended to improve health and fitness; however, it is not known if cardiovascular risk is different from continuous exercise protocols. This systematic review with meta-analyses assessed the effect of a single bout of interval exercise on cardiovascular responses that indicate risk of cardiac fibrillation and infarction compared to continuous exercise. Electronic databases Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus and Cochrane were searched.

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Hunter, JR, Gordon, BA, Bird, SR, and Benson, AC. Exercise supervision is important for cardiometabolic health improvements: a 16-week randomized controlled trial. J Strength Cond Res 34(3): 866-877, 2020-Exercise supervision enhances health and fitness improvements in clinical populations compared with unsupervised or home-based exercise, but effects of supervision type are unknown in healthy employees.

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This study investigated the influence of cardiac intervention and physical capacity of individuals attending an Australian outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program on the initial exercise prescription. A total of 85 patients commencing outpatient cardiac rehabilitation at a major metropolitan hospital had their physical capacity assessed by an incremental shuttle walk test, and the initial aerobic exercise intensity and resistance training load prescribed were recorded. Physical capacity was lower in surgical patients than nonsurgical patients.

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Issue Addressed: Physical activity and exercise participation is limited by a perceived lack of time, poor access to facilities and low motivation. The aim was to assess whether providing an exercise program to be completed at the workplace with or without direct supervision was effective for promoting health-related physical fitness and exercise participation.

Methods: Fifty university employees aged (Mean ± SD) 42.

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Purpose And Methods: This review presents established knowledge on the effects of physical activity (PA) on whole-body insulin sensitivity (SI) and summarises the findings of recent (2013-2016) studies.

Discussion And Conclusions: Recent studies provide further evidence to support the notion that regular PA reduces the risk of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, and SI improves when individuals comply with exercise and/or PA guidelines. Many studies indicate a dose response, with higher energy expenditures and higher exercise intensities, including high intensity interval training (HIIT), producing greater benefits on whole-body SI, although these findings are not unanimous.

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The goal of this study was to determine whether ultrasound measures of muscle architecture can be used to infer strength and functional capacity in older adults. Thirty-six healthy older adults (aged 68.2 ± 5.

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Objectives: To determine the validity of energy expenditure estimation made by the Fitbit One, Garmin Vivofit and Jawbone UP activity trackers during treadmill walking and running. Determining validity of such trackers will inform the interpretation of the data they generate.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

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Reliable measures of muscle strength and functional capacity in older adults are essential. The aim of this study was to determine whether coefficients of variation (CVs) of individuals obtained at the first session can infer repeatability of performance in a subsequent session. Forty-eight healthy older adults (mean age 68.

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Background: Cardiac rehabilitation is an important component in the continuum of care for individuals with cardiovascular disease, providing a multidisciplinary education and exercise programme to improve morbidity and mortality risk. Internationally, cardiac rehabilitation programmes are implemented through various models. This review compared cardiac rehabilitation guidelines in order to identify any differences and/or consensus in exercise testing, prescription and monitoring.

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Objectives: Regular exercise is advocated for individuals with type 2 diabetes, without fully understanding the acute (0-72h post-exercise) glycaemic response. This study assessed post-exercise glycaemic profiles of non-exercising individuals with insulin treated type 2 diabetes, following resistance and aerobic exercise.

Design: Randomised cross-over trial.

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The use of doping agents is evident within competitive sport in senior and junior age groups, where they are taken by non-elite as well as elite participants. They are also taken in non-sporting contexts by individuals seeking to 'improve' their physique through an increase in muscle and/or decrease in fat mass. While attaining accurate data on the prevalence of their use has limitations, studies suggest the illicit use of doping agents by athletes and non-athletes may be 1-5% in the population and greater than 50% in some groups; with the prevalence being higher in males.

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We determined the effects of "periodized nutrition" on skeletal muscle and whole body responses to a bout of prolonged exercise the following morning. Seven cyclists completed two trials receiving isoenergetic diets differing in the timing of ingestion: they consumed either 8 g/kg body mass (BM) of carbohydrate (CHO) before undertaking an evening session of high-intensity training (HIT) and slept without eating (FASTED), or consumed 4 g/kg BM of CHO before HIT, then 4 g/kg BM of CHO before sleeping (FED). The next morning subjects completed 2 h of cycling (120SS) while overnight fasted.

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The aim of this study was to compare the anthropometry, upper-body strength, and lower-body power characteristics in elite junior, sub-elite senior, and elite senior Australian Football (AF) players. Nineteen experienced elite senior (≥4 years Australian Football League [AFL] experience), 27 inexperienced elite senior (<4 years AFL experience), 22 sub-elite senior, and 21 elite junior AF players were assessed for anthropometric profile (fat-free soft tissue mass [FFSTM], fat mass, and bone mineral content) with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, upper-body strength (bench press and bench pull), and lower-body power (countermovement jump [CMJ] and squat jump with 20 kg). A 1-way analysis of variance assessed differences between the playing levels in these measures, whereas relationships between anthropometry and performance were assessed with Pearson's correlation.

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Background: A single bout of strenuous running exercise results in perturbations to numerous biomarkers. An understanding of these is important when analysing samples from individuals who have recently performed such exercise.

Methods: A literature search was undertaken using the search terms, exercise, marathon and delayed onset of muscle soreness.

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The glycemic response to aerobic exercise is well understood; however, the response to resistance exercise is not. Eight inactive males (61.0 ± 7.

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Purpose: Commencing selected workouts with low muscle glycogen availability augments several markers of training adaptation compared with undertaking the same sessions with normal glycogen content. However, low glycogen availability reduces the capacity to perform high-intensity (>85% of peak aerobic power (VO2 peak)) endurance exercise. We determined whether a low dose of caffeine could partially rescue the reduction in maximal self-selected power output observed when individuals commenced high-intensity interval training with low (LOW) compared with normal (NORM) glycogen availability.

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It is presently unclear whether the reported ergogenic effect of a carbohydrate (CHO) mouth rinse on cycling time-trial performance is affected by the acute nutritional status of an individual. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a CHO mouth rinse on a 60-min simulated cycling time-trial performance commenced in a fed or fasted state. Twelve competitive male cyclists each completed 4 experimental trials using a double-blinded Latin square design.

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During the past 50 years, the prevalence of a cluster of chronic, inactivity-related diseases including obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), collectively referred to as 'metabolic syndrome' (MetS) has reached global epidemic proportions. Appropriate exercise training is a clinically proven, cost-effective, primary intervention that delays and in many cases prevents the health burdens associated with MetS. Indeed, there is no single intervention with greater efficacy than physical exercise to reduce the risk of virtually all chronic diseases simultaneously.

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