Physical Fitness In Adults Research Articles

Leisure Time Habits and Physical Fitness in Adults with Epilepsy

By means of a questionnaire, we analyzed leisure time habits of 44 adult in-patients with active epilepsy (i.e., at least one seizure a month for the last year). Twelve patients had a generalized epilepsy and 32 a partial epilepsy. All received antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), and none had additional handicaps. Despite good facilities in their surroundings for participation in social, cultural, and physical activities, most patients lived a sedentary life. Social contact was limited, and they were only half as active physically as the average Norwegian population of comparable age and sex. Work capacity was tested as maximum oxygen uptake, using the bicycle ergometer test. Maximum oxygen uptake was considerably lower (75-80%), and the decrease observed in aerobic capacity with increasing age was more pronounced than that of the average Norwegian population. In comprehensive care of patients with epilepsy, we believe that prescription of adapted physical activity is an important means of improving quality of life.

Physical and Psychological Effects of Aerobic Exercise in Boys with Learning Disabilities

Aerobic exercise has been associated with improvements in psychological status and physical fitness in adults, but its effects on children are less clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an aerobic exercise program on the self-concept, academic achievement, motor proficiency, and cardiovascular fitness of boys with learning disabilities. Fifty-four boys were randomly assigned to one of two exercise programs lasting 20 weeks. One program emphasized aerobic exercise and the other consisted of similar but less vigorous activities. The self-concept, academic achievement, motor proficiency, and physical fitness of each subject was assessed before and after the exercise programs. The results from group comparisons demonstrated an association between the aerobic exercise program and improvement of self-concept and physical fitness. No effect on academic achievement or motor proficiency could be attributed to the aerobic exercise program.

Motivating People to be Physically Active: Self‐Persuasion vs. Balanced Decision Making1

Female members of an adult physical fitness club, who had been inactive for a period of at least one month, were assigned to one of four treatment groups. A control group received no treatment while the other three groups underwent different treatments during a telephone interview. A regular call‐up group received a standard club telephone interview advocating greater participation in the club's activities; a decision‐balance‐sheet group completed a list of anticipated gains and losses for attending the club's activities; a positive‐outcomes‐only group (i.e., self‐persuasion condition) completed a list of anticipated gains for attending the club's activities. Attendance rates for both the decision balance‐sheet group and the self‐persuasion group were better than for the control group. Also, attendance for the self‐persuasion group was significantly better than for the regular club call‐up group, Results are discussed in terms of self‐persuasion and emotional inoculation processes with respect to behavioral change and behavioral maintenance.

Fitness in the Preschool Child

Achieving fitness is a way of life, not a fad or a brief change in one's way of doing things. And, an early start is imperative. A flaw in our present system of health care is the emphasis on evaluation of anatomic or organic soundness and the presence or absence of disease–with less regard for the quality of physiologic function. In other words, dynamic performance is frequently ignored after the organic condition has been determined. An infant or child may well be regarded as healthy with the proper immunizations and absence of disease. But, is he/she able to meet daily tasks, recreational activities, and unforeseen emergencies with vigor and enthusiasm and without undue fatigue? Is he/she making adequate use of the musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary systems? Lack of encouragement to exercise in early life is reflected in the National Adult Physical Fitness Survey conducted by the President's Council on Physical Fitness in 1972. This study showed that 45% of all adult Americans do not engage in physical activity for the purpose of exercise. However, 63% of these nonexercisers said they believed they had enough exercise; only 57% of those who exercised regularly thought they did enough of it. Normal growth and development in infancy should assure physical fitness for ordinary and even strenuous physical tasks because of innate, powerful drives toward functional development at this period of life. The infant who naturally strives for motor fitness can be on the way to a lifetime of improving physical fitness. The preschool child who characteristically uses his large muscles during many hours of the day is continuing a self-imposed program of physical fitness.

National Adult Physical Fitness Survey: Some Implications

(1974). National Adult Physical Fitness Survey: Some Implications. Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation: Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 25-28.

Think Sauna: How to put fire in your adult physical fitness program

Think Sauna: How to put fire in your adult physical fitness program

分裂病患者の体力に関する一考察

Recently, the value of sorts and recreational activities has come to be highly estimated as psychotherapy for psychotic patients, and we have also come to consider physical activities from a therapeutically point of view as physical educators. When we treat psychotic patients it is natural that we should be interested in their physical fitness and motor abilities. We gave psychotic patients (male 126) Adult Physical Fitness Test (except 1500m Fast Walk). The results are as follows: 1) Though physical fitness and motor abilities of younger patients were generally better than the aged, they were influenced by the condition of patients' disease. 2) The physical fitness of schizophrenics was markedly inferior to that of healthy adult men, and their physical fitness age was high for their calendar age. 3) There wad little correlationship between physical fitness age and the attitude in daily life and work . 4) Considerable improvements were shown in the retest given after six months.

Oxygen uptake during maximal treadmill and bicycle exercise.

Oxygen uptake during maximal treadmill and bicycle exercise.

An electromyographic analysis of certain movements and exercises. I. Some deep muscles of the back.

AbstractPairs of fine wire electrodes were inserted by means of hypodermic needles 1 cm apart into the semispinalis capitis, semispinalis cervicis, spinalis, longissimus, iliocostalis lumborum, main mass of the erector spinae between the ilium and the twelfth rib, the multifidus and glutenus maximus of 20 young men and women.Each pair of electrodes was connected to an EMG integrator coupler in an 8‐channel recorder. Because the integrated electromyogram is displayed as a deviation from the baseline proportional to the strength of the muscle contraction, it was possible to appraise the relative contributions made by different muscles to any given movement or exercise. By this method simultaneous recordings were made from the muscles while the subjects flexed, extended, hyperextended, abducted and adducted the trunk from the orthograde position; walked on a treadmill, lifted weights; and performed certain exercises recommended by the President's Council on Adult Physical Fitness. Many exercises were compared, and the best ones were selected on the basis of the strength of the contractions they produced. The best exercises for strengthening the deep muscles of the back were those that involved hyperextension of the back from the prone position.Contrary to current opinion, the erector spinae is not active during abduction or adduction of the trunk from the orthograde position if the body is maintained in the frontal plane.The integrated electromyogram is an excellent tool for the evaluation of exercises.