The influence of internal (movement focus) and external (outcome focus) attentional-focusing instructions on muscular endurance were investigated using three exercise protocols with experienced exercisers. Twenty-three participants completed a maximal repetition, assisted bench-press test on a Smith's machine. An external focus of attention…

The current National Initial Standards for Physical Education Teacher Education state that preservice teachers should achieve and maintain a level of health-related fitness consistent with that expected of K12 learners. However, little research has addressed the relevance of teacher fitness to effective physical education teaching. This study…

The purpose of this article is to bring attention to the 10 most pressing questions relevant to musculoskeletal physical fitness testing in children and adolescents. The goal is to stimulate research to answer these questions. The most pressing needs include establishing definitive links between valid, reliable, and feasible field test measures of…

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive genetic condition that affects both muscle and brain. Children with DMD are at risk of psycho-social difficulties such as poor academic achievement and behavioural and socio-emotional problems. This article by Janet Hoskin and Angela Fawcett, both from the University of Swansea, describes how 34…

Background: This study examined the association between physical fitness and academic achievement and determined the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on the association between fitness and academic achievement in school-aged youth. Methods: Overall, 1,701 third-, sixth-, and ninth-grade students from 5 school districts participated in the…

The aim of the study was to evaluate the femoral cartilage thicknesses of hemiparetic patients after stroke using musculoskeletal ultrasonography and to determine whether there is any correlation between cartilage thicknesses and the clinical characteristics of the patients. Femoral cartilage thicknesses of both knees were measured in 87 (33…

Purpose: Pain associated with hypermobility of wrist and hand joints can contribute to decreased handwriting output. This study examined the effectiveness of a neoprene wrist/hand splint in reducing pain and increasing handwriting speed and endurance for students with joint hypermobility syndrome. Methods: Multiple baseline, single system design…

Physical educators are challenged to provide quality experiences that are fun for their students, enhance fitness levels, and build confidence. These challenges are amplified with the current decrease in activity levels of American youth. A possible solution to enhancing physical activity engagement in children is to incorporate climbing walls…

The goal of this work is to analyze postural control in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) participants in time and frequency domain. This study considered a pathological group composed by 22 EDS participants performing a postural test consisting in maintaining standing position over a force platform for 30 s in two conditions: open eyes (OE) and closed…

This study is the first well-designed randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of a novel home-based virtual cycling training (hVCT) program for improving muscle strength in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Twenty-eight ambulatory children with spastic CP aged 6-12 years were randomly assigned to an hVCT group (n = 13) or a…

Most physical education intervention studies on the positive effect of sports on self-concept development have attempted to "increase" schoolchildren's self-concept without taking the "veridicality" of the self-concept into account. The present study investigated whether a 10-week intervention in physical education would lead…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine region, age, and sex profiles of physical fitness in Hungarian youth. Method: A sample of 2,602 Hungarian youth aged 10 to 18 years old completed a series of physical fitness field tests: the Progressive Aerobic Cardiorespiratory Endurance Run (PACER) fitness test, body mass index (BMI), percent…

Reduced respiratory muscle strength in individuals with Down syndrome (DS) may affect speech respiratory variables such as maximum phonation duration (MPD), initiation volume, and expired mean airflow. Researchers randomly assigned adolescents with DS (N = 28) to either 12 weeks of swim training (DS-ST) or a control group (DS-NT). Repeated…

Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) is a fairly new practice whose underlying principles date back to the beginning of time. Man has always found companionship in animals, but now researchers, educators and therapists are finding that by drawing on that comfort, children and adults can attack physical, mental and emotional issues. The use of animals in…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that eating a meal reduces tongue strength and endurance in healthy old and young adults. It was predicted that older adults would show greater declines in tongue endurance while demonstrating higher perceived effort, longer meal durations, and clinical signs of swallowing difficulty.…