Autoeficácia para a prática de atividade física por indivíduos adultos

Self-efficacy to regular practice of physical activity (PA) can be defined as the ability to keep practicing exercises even with some obstacles that could appear. It is constituted through the influence of 4 main sources: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion and physiological and affective states. The aim of the study was to measure the level of self-efficacy to the regular practice of PA, its construction sources and correlate the level of self-efficacy with each one of the sources. An amount of 196 practitioners of PA took part in this study. The results showed that the level of self-efficacy was 111.19 points in scale that can range from 18 to 162 points. The most prominent source in the construction of self-efficacy was the social persuasion, with an average of 27.64 points in scale that can range from 4 to 36 points. For the correlations, it was used the Pearson coefficient (r). Mastery experiences stood out among the other sources (r = .30). The results agree with the literature, establishing the importance of the encouragement of close people in the maintenance of the behavior to practice PA, as well as to observe positive models, success experiences and feel comfortable during the exercises. © FTCD/FIP-MOC.

Uma proposta de intervenção com atividade física individualizada na deficiência intelectual: um estudo de caso

The practice of regular physical activity has been considered a protective factor against the degenerative processes of the body, acting as a promoter of health, especially for risk groups such as obese and resistant groups exercise adherence as among the intellectually disabled (ID) . This study involved the administration of a training protocol and the physical parameters of longitudinal health in a subject about 43 years, intellectually deficient, hypertensive, obese and with a strong predisposition to develop diabetes and heart disease. The main objective of long-term program was to reduce body weight and normalize blood pressure (BP) after the student's physical activity and preferentially interfere with BP values at rest (ie before the daily schedule). The other objective was to improve general physical fitness. The protocol involved four meetings per week lasting one hour, in addition to participation in the program PROEFA (twice a week with sessions of one hour each), totaling 57 sessions spread over five months. The evaluation protocol included in each session the following tests: blood pressure measurements and heart rate, and amount of physical activity recorded via pedometer. Tests applied before and after the training included: anthropometric assessment, agility test, flexibility test, test drive through vertical and horizontal jumps and endurance to the test bench. The mass (kg) and BMI corresponded to the initial values of 127.7 kg and 42.05 kg m-2, and 5 months after 113.2 kg and 37.48 kg m-2, respectively. The waist-hip ratio was close to 1 after the intervention and this value corresponded to 0.98. For the test of agility (shuttle run) was not found improvement in performance. To test the values of the horizontal jump in pre-test were 52 cm and 56 cm post-test, vertical jump has been improved and...(Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Acute physical exercise under hypoxia improves sleep, mood and reaction time

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis alpha(1) and alpha(2) adrenoceptors differentially modulate the cardiovascular responses to exercise in rats

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Respiratory Parameters and Exercise Functional Capacity in Preeclampsia

Objective: To evaluate maximal respiratory pressures, pulmonary volumes and capacities and exercise functional capacity in pregnant women with preeclampsia. Method: Primigravid women with preeclampsia and healthy primigravid women were evaluated by means of manovacuometry, spirometry and the 6-minute walk test. Results: The group with preeclampsia showed higher minute ventilation and lower forced vital capacity and exercise tolerance. The presence of preeclampsia and forced vital capacity were predictors in the six-minute walk test. Conclusion: Preeclampsia showed significant alterations in the respiratory system and was associated with lower exercise tolerance; however, it did not affect respiratory muscle functions.

Benefits of physical exercise on executive functions in older people with Parkinson's disease

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Effects of Different Swimming Exercise Intensities on Bone Tissue Composition in Mice: A Raman Spectroscopy Study

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Evaluation of race distance, track surface and season of the year on exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage in flat racing Thoroughbreds in Brazil

Reasons for performing study: To our knowledge no studies evaluating risk factors to EIPH have been undertaken with such a population of horses in Brazil, which is one of the few countries in the racing community to accept the use of frusemide (FUR) as a prerace medication for bleeders. We also compared national results with those already in the literature. Objectives: To verify the influence of variables such as distance of the race, racetrack surface, going and season of the year in the recurrence and severity of EIPH and its effect on the finishing position of flat racing Thoroughbreds in Brazil. Methods: 2118 post race respiratory endoscopies were recorded, in a total of 1003 individual horses. All horses in the study were certified bleeders (deemed positive by registered veterinarians following one or more endoscopies) and were administered FUR prior to each race. Data was analysed using both ordinary logistic regression and multiple logistic regression. Results: The results suggest that race distance, season of the year and racetrack surface affect the recurrence of EIPH. Also, despite the use of FUR, the majority (62%) of horses continued to display some degree of haemorrhage. Conclusions: There was a tendency for horses that remained positive despite the use of FUR to finish unplaced in a race. Horses which had a significant reduction in bleeding and became HPIE negative after the use of FUR, tended to finish in top positions. It was not possible to determine a pattern of severity of EIPH in horses with more than one endoscopy. Further studies are required to improve our understanding of this syndrome and its correlations to performance in the racing Thoroughbred, together with the role of FUR and its possible enhancing performance effects and efficacy in consistently diminishing EIPH. Potential relevance: This study enabled a better understanding of the use of FUR in Brazilian Thoroughbred racehorses and showed there was a tendency towards improvement in performance after administrion of FUR in bleeders. The fact that a large number of horses remained positive for EIPH despite the use of FUR should encourage the scientific community to search for better ways of reducing, or preventing, this syndrome. © 2006 EVJ Ltd.

Neuromuscular recovery of the biceps brachii muscle after resistance exercise

The aim of this study was to determine the time to restore the biceps brachii (BB) electromyographic (EMG) activity after the biceps curl (BC) exercise, at different intensities. Ten males performed initially maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVC) of the elbow flexors, followed by one isometric submaximal contraction at 50% MVC (reference contraction). After this, four bouts of the BC at 25%, 30%, 35%, and 40% 1 RM during 1 minute (randomly assigned, with 10 minutes rest between them) were performed. During the rest intervals at preestablished moments (15 seconds, 1, 3, 5, and 10 min), isometric 50% MVC were performed. The EMG variables (root mean square [RMS], zero crossings [ZC], median frequency, [MF] and peak power [PP]) at rest were compared with reference values. Immediately after the exercise, RMS and PP increased, while ZC and MF decreased, indicating fatigue. After 1 minute most of the variables were similar to the reference. Different load levels did not affect the EMG recovery. In conclusion, the EMG variables recovered after 1 minute rest, indicating the optimal muscular condition for subsequent bouts. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Effect of exercise training on the cardiovascular and biochemical parameters in women with eNOS gene polymorphism

Context: Presence of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene polymorphism has been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) whereas exercise training (EX) promotes beneficial effects on CVD which is related to increased nitric oxide levels (NO). Objective: To evaluate if women with eNOS gene polymorphism at position-G894T would be less responsive to EX than those who did not carry T allele. Methods: Women were trained 3 days/week, 40 minutes session during 6 months. Cardio-biochemical parameters and genetic analysis were performed in a double-blind fashion. Results: Plasma NOx - levels were similar in both groups at baseline (GG genotype: 18.44±3.28 μM) and (GT + TT genotype: 17.19±2.43 μM) and after EX (GG: 29.20±4.33 and GT+TT: 27.38±3.12 μM). A decrease in blood pressure was also observed in both groups. Discussion and conclusion: The presence of eNOS polymorphism does not affect the beneficial effects of EX in women. © 2011 Informa UK, Ltd.

Understanding the influence of oxidative stress and physical exercise in the relationship between blood pressure and uric acid

Due to the high incidence and prevalence of hypertension, especially in the elderly population, several studies have been developed to understand the relationship between etiological factors and blood pressure control. It has been demonstrated that hypertensive patients tend to present a status of hyperuricemia. This result suggested that there is a relationship between blood pressure and uric acid concentrations. However there is still a lack of studies that focus on this relationship, and especially how physical exercise could affect the relationship between both of them. Thus, the purpose of this study is to review and discuss the relationship between hypertension and uric acid concentration pointing the oxidative stress as the main factor of this relationship and discuss the physical exercise as the main preventive factor of high uric acid concentrations and oxidative stress. It has been described an increase in oxidative stress during the uric acid pathway because the high production of anions superoxide. This in turn, increases the activation of renin-angiotensin system and decreases nitric oxide bioavailability which will compromise the vasodilatation mechanism. However physical exercises have been associated with improvements in antioxidant capacity and nitric oxide production and bioavailability which will improve the blood pressure control.