An 11-week school-based "health education through football" programme improves musculoskeletal variables in 10-12-yr-old Danish school children.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of the "11 for Health" programme on musculoskeletal fitness. Methods: A total of 108 Danish children aged 10-12 years participated in the study, with 61 children in the intervention group (IG, 25 girls and 36 boys) and 47 children in the control group (CG, 21 girls and 26 boys). Measurements were conducted before and after an 11-week intervention consisting of twice-weekly 45-min football training sessions for IG or continuation of normal Physical Education program for CG. Whole-body dual X-ray absorptiometry was conducted for evaluation of leg and total bone mineral density as well as bone, muscle and fat mass. Standing Long Jump and Stork balance tests were employed to assess musculoskeletal fitness and postural balance. Results: During the 11-week study period, leg bone mineral density as well as leg lean body mass increased more (p < 0.05) in the intervention group (IG) compared to the control group (CG) (0.021 ± 0.019 vs 0.014 ± 0.018 g/cm2 and 0.51 ± 0.46 vs 0.32 ± 0.35 kg, respectively). Moreover, body fat percentage decreased more in IG than in CG (-0.6 ± 0.1 vs 0.1 ± 0.1 %-points, p < 0.05). No significant between-group differences were found in bone mineral content. Stork balance test performance increased more in IG than in CG (0.5 ± 2.6 vs -1.5 ± 4.4 s, p < 0.05), whereas no between-group differences were found in jump performance. Conclusions: The school-based football programme, 11 for Health, with twice-weekly 45-min training sessions over 11 weeks improves various, but not all evaluated parameters related to musculoskeletal fitness in 10-12-yr-old Danish school children.

Lifestyle and physical fitness in adolescents with type 1 diabetes and obesity.

Background: The association between Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) and obesity (Ob) is no longer unexpected due to unhealthy lifestyle mostly in adolescents. We compared clinical-biochemical characteristics, adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD), lifestyle habits and physical fitness across different weight categories of T1DM adolescents from Campania Region. As second aim, we assessed the relationship among lifestyle and physical fitness in these patients. Methods: 74 adolescents (35M; 39F; 13-18 y), with T1DM diagnosed at least 6 mo before the study, were enrolled at the Regional Center for Pediatric Diabetology of Vanvitelli University of Naples. Height, weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), BMI z-score, and Clinical Biochemical health-related parameters were determined. MD adherence, physical activity (PA) amount and sedentary habits were assessed by questionnaires. Handgrip strength, 2-Min Step test (2-MST) cardiorespiratory endurance and Timed up and go test (TUG) for agility and balance were used for physical fitness evaluation. Results: Our sample included 22 normal weight (NW), 37 overweight (OW) and 15 with Obese (Ob) adolescents. Across the three groups, adolescents showed similar Clinical-Biochemical parameters, MD adherence, PA amount, mostly walking (9.3 h/w), daily video exposure (8.5 h/d) and similar handgrip or 2-MST performance. Better performance was observed in NW compared to OW or Ob for TUG (7 vs 8 vs 9 s; p < 0.05). A positive correlation was found between TUG test and BMI, while no correlation was found between HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin) and BMI z score or 2-MST. Conclusions: T1DM adolescents did not meet the recommendations for active lifestyle, despite a medium/good adherence to MD, in particular in NW and OW youths. Sedentary habits correlated with a poor HbA1c. Further, reduced agility and balance were observed in adolescents with obesity compared to NW participants.Future research should be aimed to examine wider samples and to design health promotion interventions for T1DM adolescents.

The Effects of Short-Term High-Intensity Interval Training and Moderate Intensity Continuous Training on Body Fat Percentage, Abdominal Circumference, BMI and VO2max in Overweight Subjects.

We aimed to compare the effects of a personalized short-term high-intensity interval training (HIIT) vs. standard moderate intensity continuous training (MICT) on body fat percentage, abdominal circumference, BMI and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) in overweight volunteers. Twenty overweight sedentary volunteers (24.9 ± 2.9y; BMI: 26.1 ± 1 kgm-2) were randomly assigned to 2 groups, HIIT or MICT. HIIT trained 6 weeks (3-days/week), 40-min sessions as follows: 6-min warm-up, 20-min resistance training (RT) at 70% 1-RM, 8-min HIIT up to 90% of the predicted Maximal Heart Rate (HRmax), 6-min cool-down. MICT trained 6 weeks (3-days/week) 60-min sessions as follows: 6-min warm-up, 20-min RT at 70% 1-RM, 30-min MICT at 60-70% of the predicted HRmax, 4-min cool-down. Two-way ANOVA was performed in order to compare the efficacy of HIIT and MICT protocols, and no significant interaction between training x time was evidenced (p > 0.05), indicating similar effects of both protocols on all parameters analyzed. Interestingly, the comparison of Δ mean percentage revealed an improvement in VO2max (p = 0.05) together with a positive trend in the reduction of fat mass percentage (p = 0.06) in HIIT compared to MICT protocol. In conclusion, 6 weeks of personalized HIIT, with reduced training time (40 vs. 60 min)/session and volume of training/week, improved VO2max and reduced fat mass percentage more effectively compared to MICT. These positive results encourage us to test this training in a larger population.