Rating of perceived exertion as a tool for prescribing and self regulating interval training: a pilot study

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

Prescribing and regulating exercise with RPE after heart transplant: a pilot study

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

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

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

The Effects of High Pressure on the Point of No Return in Simulated Penalty Kicks

We investigated the effects of high pressure on the point of no return or the minimum time required for a kicker to respond to the goalkeeper's dive in a simulated penalty kick task. The goalkeeper moved to one side with different times available for the participants to direct the ball to the opposite side in low-pressure (acoustically isolated laboratory) and high-pressure situations (with a participative audience). One group of participants showed a significant lengthening of the point of no return under high pressure. With less time available, performance was at chance level. Unexpectedly, in a second group of participants, high pressure caused a qualitative change in which for short times available participants were inclined to aim in the direction of the goalkeeper's move. The distinct effects of high pressure are discussed within attentional control theory to reflect a decreasing efficiency of the goal-driven attentional system, slowing down performance, and a decreasing effectiveness in inhibiting stimulus-driven behavior.

Anti-inflammatory Effects of Aerobic Exercise in Mice Exposed to Air Pollution

VIEIRA, R. D. P., A. C. TOLEDO, L. B. SILVA, F. M. ALMEIDA, N. R. DAMACENO-RODRIGUES, E. G. CALDINI, A. B. G. SANTOS, D. H. RIVERO, D. C. HIZUME, F. D. T. Q. S. LOPES, C. R. OLIVO, H. C. CASTRO-FARIA-NETO, M. A. MARTINS, P. H. N. SALDIVA, and M. DOLHNIKOFF. Anti-inflammatory Effects of Aerobic Exercise in Mice Exposed to Air Pollution. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 44, No. 7, pp. 1227-1234, 2012. Purpose: Exposure to diesel exhaust particles (DEP) results in lung inflammation. Regular aerobic exercise improves the inflammatory status in different pulmonary diseases. However, the effects of long-term aerobic exercise on the pulmonary response to DEP have not been investigated. The present study evaluated the effect of aerobic conditioning on the pulmonary inflammatory and oxidative responses of mice exposed to DEP. Methods: BALB/c mice were subjected to aerobic exercise five times per week for 5 wk, concomitantly with exposure to DEP (3 mg.mL (1); 10 mu L per mouse). The levels of exhaled nitric oxide, reactive oxygen species, cellularity, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) were analyzed in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and the density of neutrophils and the volume proportion of collagen fibers were measured in the lung parenchyma. The cellular density of leukocytes expressing IL-1 beta, keratinocyte chemoattractant (KC), and TNF-alpha in lung parenchyma was evaluated with immunohistochemistry. The levels of IL-1 beta, KC, and TNF-alpha were also evaluated in the serum. Results: Aerobic exercise inhibited the DEP-induced increase in the levels of reactive oxygen species (P < 0.05); exhaled nitric oxide (P < 0.01); total (P < 0.01) and differential cells (P < 0.01); IL-6 and TNF-alpha levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (P < 0.05); the level of neutrophils (P < 0.001); collagen density in the lung parenchyma (P < 0.05); the levels of IL-6, KC, and TNF-alpha in plasma (P < 0.05); and the expression of IL-1 beta, KC, and TNF-alpha by leukocytes in the lung parenchyma (P < 0.01). Conclusions: We conclude that long-term aerobic exercise presents protective effects in a mouse model of DEP-induced lung inflammation. Our results indicate a need for human studies that evaluate the pulmonary responses to aerobic exercise chronically performed in polluted areas.

Exercise training prevents oxidative stress and ubiquitin-proteasome system overactivity and reverse skeletal muscle atrophy in heart failure

Background: Heart failure (HF) is known to lead to skeletal muscle atrophy and dysfunction. However, intracellular mechanisms underlying HF-induced myopathy are not fully understood. We hypothesized that HF would increase oxidative stress and ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) activation in skeletal muscle of sympathetic hyperactivity mouse model. We also tested the hypothesis that aerobic exercise training (AET) would reestablish UPS activation in mice and human HF. Methods/Principal Findings: Time-course evaluation of plantaris muscle cross-sectional area, lipid hydroperoxidation, protein carbonylation and chymotrypsin-like proteasome activity was performed in a mouse model of sympathetic hyperactivity-induced HF. At the 7th month of age, HF mice displayed skeletal muscle atrophy, increased oxidative stress and UPS overactivation. Moderate-intensity AET restored lipid hydroperoxides and carbonylated protein levels paralleled by reduced E3 ligases mRNA levels, and reestablished chymotrypsin-like proteasome activity and plantaris trophicity. In human HF (patients randomized to sedentary or moderate-intensity AET protocol), skeletal muscle chymotrypsin-like proteasome activity was also increased and AET restored it to healthy control subjects' levels. Conclusions: Collectively, our data provide evidence that AET effectively counteracts redox imbalance and UPS overactivation, preventing skeletal myopathy and exercise intolerance in sympathetic hyperactivity-induced HF in mice. Of particular interest, AET attenuates skeletal muscle proteasome activity paralleled by improved aerobic capacity in HF patients, which is not achieved by drug treatment itself. Altogether these findings strengthen the clinical relevance of AET in the treatment of HF.

Methods of body-mass reduction by combat sport athletes

The aim of this study was to investigate the methods adopted to reduce body mass (BM) in competitive athletes from the grappling (judo, jujitsu) and striking (karate and tae kwon do) combat sports in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. An exploratory methodology was employed through descriptive research, using a standardized questionnaire with objective questions self-administered to 580 athletes (25.0 +/- 3.7 yr, 74.5 +/- 9.7 kg, and 16.4% +/- 5.1% body fat). Regardless of the sport, 60% of the athletes reported using a method of rapid weight loss (RWL) through increased energy expenditure. Strikers tend to begin reducing BM during adolescence. Furthermore, 50% of the sample used saunas and plastic clothing, and only 26.1% received advice from a nutritionist. The authors conclude that a high percentage of athletes uses RWL methods. In addition, a high percentage of athletes uses unapproved or prohibited methods such as diuretics, saunas, and plastic clothing. The age at which combat sport athletes reduce BM for the first time is also worrying, especially among strikers.

Dilthey: The hermeneutics of life and the universal aspirations of pedagogy

Dilthey claimed that first psychology and then hermeneutics played the foundational role for his philosophy of life, whose main practical goal is to develop a pedagogy or theory of education. Pedagogy needs help from h ethics to establish its ends, and from psychology to indicate it means. This paper intends to show the relationship between Dilthey's hermeneutics of life and his pedagogy. Dilthey's philosophy of life, in so far it adopts the hermeneutical procedure, engages in the understanding of or the search for the meaning of human socio-historical creations, by adopting a special type of relationship between parts and whole. It is exactly within this hermeneutical balance that we propose to extinguish any indication of a rupture, breach, or contradiction between the quest for universal principles of human behavior and :Dilthey's defense of the impossibility of constructing human moral tasks by means of universal principles. Dilthey began his ethics lectures at the University of Berlin in 1890. These lectures, published in 1958 by Herman Nohl in volume X of Dilthey's collected works, indicate the direction of the trajectory by which formative or social ethics are consolidated as a historical solution for reaching universal principles that can guide human purposes. This trajectory is a result of the distinctively human exercise of self-reflection, by means of which we can fulfill our destiny of manifesting and exteriorizing in time the immanent energy of the absolute spirit. We wish to show that it is possible that such a pedagogy can respect its universal task of orienting the historical development of the younger generation without directing this process by means of fixed and rigid aims.

Frontal Plane Biomechanics in Males and Females with and without Patellofemoral Pain

NAKAGAWA, T. H., E. T. U. MORIYA, C. D. MACIEL, and F. V. SERRAO. Frontal Plane Biomechanics in Males and Females with and without Patellofemoral Pain. Med. Sci. Sports &ere., Vol. 44, No. 9, pp. 1747-1755, 2012. Purpose: The study's purpose was to compare trunk, pelvis, hip, and knee frontal plane biomechanics in males and females with and without patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) during stepping. Methods: Eighty recreational athletes were equally divided into four groups: female PFPS, female controls, male PFPS, and male controls. Trunk, pelvis, hip, and knee frontal plane kinematics and activation of the gluteus medius were evaluated at 15 degrees, 30 degrees, 45 degrees, and 60 degrees of knee flexion during the downward and upward phases of the stepping task. Isometric hip abductor torque was also evaluated. Results: Females showed increased hip adduction and knee abduction at all knee flexion angles, greater ipsilateral trunk lean and contralateral pelvic drop from 60 degrees of knee flexion till the end of the stepping task (P = 0.027-0.001), diminished hip abductor torque (P < 0.001), and increased gluteus medius activation than males (P = 0.008-0.001). PFPS subjects presented increased knee abduction at all the angles evaluated; greater trunk, pelvis, and hip motion from 45 of knee flexion of the downward phase till the end of the maneuver; and diminished gluteus medius activation at 60 degrees of knee flexion, compared with controls (P = 0.034-0.001). Females with PFPS showed lower hip abductor torque compared with the other groups. Conclusions: Females presented with altered frontal plane biomechanics that may predispose them to knee injury. PFPS subjects showed frontal plane biomechanics that could increase the lateral patellofemoral joint stress at all the angles evaluated and could increase even more from 45 degrees of knee flexion in the downward phase untill the end of the maneuver. Hip abductor strengthening and motor control training should be considered when treating females with PFPS.

Swimming Training in Rats Increases Cardiac MicroRNA-126 Expression and Angiogenesis

DA SILVA, N. D. JR, T. FERNANDES, U. P. R. SOCI, A. W. A. MONTEIRO, M. I. PHILLIPS, and E. M. DE OLIVEIRA. Swimming Training in Rats Increases Cardiac MicroRNA-126 Expression and Angiogenesis. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 44, No. 8, pp. 1453-1462, 2012. Purpose: MicroRNA (miRNA)-126 is angiogenic and has two validated targets: Sprouty-related protein 1 (Spred-1) and phosphoinositol-3 kinase regulatory subunit 2 (PI3KR2), negative regulators of angiogenesis by VEGF pathway inhibition. We investigated the role of swimming training on cardiac miRNA-126 expression related to angiogenesis. Methods: Female Wistar rats were assigned to three groups: sedentary (S), training 1 (T1, moderate volume), and training 2 (T2, high volume). T1 consisted of 60 min.d(-1) of swimming, five times per week for 10 wk with 5% body overload. T2 consisted of the same protocol of T1 until the eighth week; in the ninth week, rats trained for two times a day, and in the 10th week, rats trained for three times a day. MiRNA and PI3KR2 gene expression analysis was performed by real-time polymerase chain reaction in heart muscle. We assessed markers of training, the cardiac capillary-fiber ratio, cardiac protein expression of VEGF, Spred-1, Raf-1/ERK 1/2, and PI3K/Akt/eNOS. Results: The cardiac capillary-fiber ratio increased in T1 (58%) and T2 (101%) compared with S. VEGF protein expression was increased 42% in T1 and 108% in T2. Cardiac miRNA-126 expression increased 26% (T1) and 42% (T2) compared with S, correlated with angiogenesis. The miRNA-126 target Spred-1 protein level decreased 41% (T1) and 39% (T2), which consequently favored an increase in angiogenic signaling pathway Raf-1/ERK 1/2. On the other hand, the gene expression of PI3KR2, the other miRNA-126 target, was reduced 39% (T1) and 78% (T2), and there was an increase in protein expression of components of the PI3K/Akt/eNOS signaling pathway in the trained groups. Conclusions: This study showed that aerobic training promotes an increase in the expression of miRNA-126 and that this may be related to exercise-induced cardiac angiogenesis, by indirect regulation of the VEGF pathway and direct regulation of its targets that converged in an increase in angiogenic pathways, such as MAPK and PI3K/Akt/eNOS.