Previous studies have been unable to characterise the association between physical activity and obesity, possibly because most relied on inaccurate measures of physical activity and obesity. We carried out a cross sectional analysis on 5,500 12-year-old children enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Total physical activity and minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured using the Actigraph accelerometer. Fat mass and obesity (defined as the top decile of fat mass) were measured using the Lunar Prodigy dual x-ray emission absorptiometry scanner. We found strong negative associations between MVPA and fat mass that were unaltered after adjustment for total physical activity. We found a strong negative dose-response association between MVPA and obesity. The odds ratio for obesity in adjusted models between top and the bottom quintiles of minutes of MVPA was 0.03 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01-0.13, p-value for trend <0.0001) in boys and 0.36 (95% CI 0.17-0.74, p-value for trend = 0.006) in girls. We demonstrated a strong graded inverse association between physical activity and obesity that was stronger in boys. Our data suggest that higher intensity physical activity may be more important than total activity.

/pdf/objectively-measured-physical-activity-and-fat-mass-in-a-2pwl134tvf.pdf

Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Fat Mass in a Large Cohort of Children

Background
No literature reviews have systematically identified and evaluated research on the psychological determinants of endurance performance, and sport psychology performance enhancement guidelines for endurance sports are not founded on a systematic appraisal of endurance-specific research.

/pdf/psychological-determinants-of-whole-body-endurance-k4bdhyy3ia.pdf

Psychological Determinants of Whole-Body Endurance Performance.

Researchers and practitioners interested in assessing physical activity in children are often faced with the dilemma of what instrument to use. While there is a plethora of physical activity instruments to choose from, there is currently no guide regarding the suitability of common assessment instruments. The purpose of this paper is to provide a user's guide for selecting physical activity assessment instruments appropriate for use with children and adolescents. While recommendations regarding specific instruments are not provided, the guide offers information about key attributes and considerations for the use of eight physical activity assessment approaches: heart rate monitoring; accelerometry; pedometry; direct observation; self-report; parent report; teacher report; and diaries/logs. Attributes of instruments and other factors to be considered in the selection of assessment instruments include: population (age); sample size; respondent burden; method/delivery mode; assessment time frame; physical activity information required (data output); data management; measurement error; cost (instrument and administration) and other limitations. A decision flow chart has been developed to assist researchers and practitioners to select an appropriate method of assessing physical activity. Five real-life scenarios are presented to illustrate this process in light of key instrument attributes. It is important that researchers, practitioners and policy makers understand the strengths and limitations of different methods of assessing physical activity, and are guided on selection of the most appropriate instrument/s to suit their needs.---

Keywords: Physical activity; Measurement; Self-report; Methodology; Assessment

A hitchhiker's guide to assessing young people's physical activity : deciding what method to use

Background: Psychologists are increasingly supporting the quest for performance enhancement in sport and there is a need to evaluate the evidence base underpinning their work. Objectives: To synthesize the most rigorous available research that has evaluated psychological, social, and psychosocial interventions with sport performers on variables relating to their athletic performance, and to address some of the perplexing issues in the sport psychology intervention literature (e.g., do interventions have a lasting effect on sport performance?). Methods: Randomized controlled trials were identified through electronic databases, hand-searching volumes of pertinent journals, scrutinizing reference lists of previous reviews, and contacting experts in the evaluation of interventions in this field. Included studies were required to evaluate the effects of psychological, social, or psychosocial interventions on sport performance in athletes when compared to a no-treatment or placebo-controlled treatment comparison group. A random effects meta-analysis calculating the standardized mean difference (Hedges’ g), meta-regressions, and trim and fill analyses were conducted. Data were analyzed at post-test and follow-up (ranging from 1 to 4 weeks after the intervention finished) assessments. Results: Psychological and psychosocial interventions were shown to enhance sport performance at post-test (k = 35, n = 997, Hedges’ g = 0.57, 95 % CI = 0.22–0.92) and follow-up assessments (k = 8, n = 189, Hedges’ g = 1.16, 95 % CI = 0.25–2.08); no social interventions were included or evaluated. Larger effects were found for psychosocial interventions and there was some evidence that effects were greatest in coach-delivered interventions and in samples with a greater proportion of male participants. Conclusions: Psychological and psychosocial interventions have a moderate positive effect on sport performance, and this effect may last at least a month following the end of the intervention. Future research would benefit from following guidelines for intervention reporting.

/pdf/effects-of-psychological-and-psychosocial-interventions-on-1mpjj8mwb9.pdf

Effects of Psychological and Psychosocial Interventions on Sport Performance: A Meta-Analysis

The Routledge companion to sport and exercise psychology: Global perspectives and fundamental concepts is a comprehensive book that covers an extensive array of views in the scientific discipline o...

Routledge companion to sport and exercise psychology: global perspectives and fundamental concepts

Based on the premise that what people think influences their actions, self-talk strategies have been developed to direct and facilitate human performance. In this article, we present a meta-analytic review of the effects of self-talk interventions on task performance in sport and possible factors that may moderate the effectiveness of self-talk. A total of 32 studies yielding 62 effect sizes were included in the final meta-analytic pool. The analysis revealed a positive moderate effect size (ES = .48). The moderator analyses showed that self-talk interventions were more effective for tasks involving relatively fine, compared with relatively gross, motor demands, and for novel, compared with well-learned, tasks. Instructional self-talk was more effective for fine tasks than was motivational self-talk; moreover, instructional self-talk was more effective for fine tasks rather than gross tasks. Finally, interventions including self-talk training were more effective than those not including self-talk training...

Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis

The purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of a 10-week self-talk intervention on competitive performance in young swimmers. Participants were 41 swimmers (M age 14.59, SD = 1.58 years), whose performance was recorded on 2 competitive occasions with a 10-week interval. In-between the 2 competitions, participants in the intervention group followed a self-talk training program. The results showed that the intervention group had greater performance improvements than the control group, thus, supporting the effectiveness of the program in enhancing sport performance in a competitive environment. The findings provide directions for the development of effective self-talk interventions.

Self-talk and Competitive Sport Performance

Background: Therapeutic virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an effective treatment modality for cognitive and physical training in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, to replace existing nonpharmaceutical treatment training protocols, VR platforms need significant improvement if they are to appeal to older people with symptoms of cognitive decline and meet their specific needs.
Objective: This study aims to design and test the acceptability, usability, and tolerability of an immersive VR platform that allows older people with MCI symptoms to simultaneously practice physical and cognitive skills on a dual task.
Methods: On the basis of interviews with 20 older people with MCI symptoms (15 females; mean age 76.25, SD 5.03 years) and inputs from their health care providers (formative study VR1), an interdisciplinary group of experts developed a VR system called VRADA (VR Exercise App for Dementia and Alzheimer’s Patients). Using an identical training protocol, the VRADA system was first tested with a group of 30 university students (16 females; mean age 20.86, SD 1.17 years) and then with 27 older people (19 females; mean age 73.22, SD 9.26 years) who had been diagnosed with MCI (feasibility studies VR2a and VR2b). Those in the latter group attended two Hellenic Association Day Care Centers for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. Participants in both groups were asked to perform a dual task training protocol that combined physical and cognitive exercises in two different training conditions. In condition A, participants performed a cycling task in a lab environment while being asked by the researcher to perform oral math calculations (single-digit additions and subtractions). In condition B, participants performed a cycling task in the virtual environment while performing calculations that appeared within the VR app. Participants in both groups were assessed in the same way; this included questionnaires and semistructured interviews immediately after the experiment to capture perceptions of acceptability, usability, and tolerability, and to determine which of the two training conditions each participant preferred.
Results: Participants in both groups showed a significant preference for the VR condition (students: mean 0.66, SD 0.41, t29=8.74, P<.001; patients with MCI: mean 0.72, SD 0.51, t26=7.36, P<.001), as well as high acceptance scores for intended future use, attitude toward VR training, and enjoyment. System usability scale scores (82.66 for the students and 77.96 for the older group) were well above the acceptability threshold (75/100). The perceived adverse effects were minimal, indicating a satisfactory tolerability.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that VRADA is an acceptable, usable, and tolerable system for physical and cognitive training of older people with MCI and university students. Randomized controlled trial studies are needed to assess the efﬁcacy of VRADA as a tool to promote physical and cognitive health in patients with MCI.

/pdf/a-virtual-reality-app-for-physical-and-cognitive-training-of-2jpewv8r52.pdf

Α Virtual Reality App for Physical and Cognitive Training of Older People With Mild Cognitive Impairment: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.

Adolescents' daily life has dramatically changed during the COVID-19 era due to the social restrictions that have been imposed, including closures of schools, leisure centers and sport facilities. The purpose of this study was to examine levels of well-being and mood and their relations with physical (in)activity and eating behaviors in adolescents during a lockdown period in Greece. A total of 950 adolescents (Mean Age = 14.41 years ± 1.63) participated in a web-based survey while education was conducted online and organized sport activities were interrupted. Participants showed poor well-being, insufficient physical activity levels and moderate scores of healthy eating behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that, after controlling for the effect of gender and body mass index, increased physical activity and healthier eating behavior predicted better well-being (b = 0.24, p < 0.01 and b = 0.19, p < 0.01, respectively), whereas sedentariness predicted worse well-being (b = -0.16, p < 0.01). Furthermore, it was revealed that days of physical activity per week was a stronger predictor of well-being than minutes of physical activity per week, and that both in-house and out-of-house physical activity were beneficial. Considering that well-being in our study was below the threshold recommended by the World Health Organization as indicative of possible depressive symptoms, measures to increase physical activity, decrease sedentariness and improve eating behavior should become a priority for communities and policy makers.

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/5/1449/pdf

Physical Activity, Sedentariness, Eating Behaviour and Well-Being during a COVID-19 Lockdown Period in Greek Adolescents.

Self-talk interventions have proven effective for enhancing performance. Identifying the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of self-talk strategies is now among the top priorities for a comprehensive understanding of the self-talk phenomenon. The present chapter aims at providing an overview of the existing literature and guidance for further research developments on the self-talk mechanisms. First, evidence from self-talk interventions that stress the importance of studying the self-talk mechanisms will be summarized. Subsequently, preliminary evidence and existing conceptual models on the self-talk mechanisms will be presented. Finally, theoretical frameworks that can be adopted to accommodate findings pertaining to the self-talk mechanisms will be identified, and relevant empirical evidence will be presented to support a prospective model of self-talk mechanisms in sport.

Evangelos Galanis

Papers

Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Self-talk and Competitive Sport Performance

Α Virtual Reality App for Physical and Cognitive Training of Older People With Mild Cognitive Impairment: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.

Physical Activity, Sedentariness, Eating Behaviour and Well-Being during a COVID-19 Lockdown Period in Greek Adolescents.

Why self-talk is effective? Perspectives on self-talk mechanisms in sport.