Soccer training: an effective exercise mode to prevent and treat childhood obesity?

Exercise training has been recognized as an effective treatment for childhood obesity. Clinical experience has shown that great efforts are needed to train children around 10 years old when using traditional aerobic exercise modes, such as walking and running. To seek more attractive training methods for children, in this paper, we review the current literature to evaluate the effectiveness of soccer training on childhood obesity prevention and treatment. Future research direction and sport injury prevention are also discussed

Recreational football training improved health-related physical fitness in 9- to 10-year-old boys

Background: Recreational football is an aerobic/anaerobic intermittent sport with altering exercise periods at high or low intensity. Various football drills and body movement in this exercise may easily attract children to take part in. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that recreational football training would improve the health-related physical fitness in healthy 9- to 10-year-old boys, compared to the outcome from non-exercise boys. Methods: Forty boys were randomly allocated into the football and control groups. Body composition, predicted maximal oxygen uptake, heart rate responses during submaximal exercise, running ability, muscle strengths, and body balance and flexibility were measured before and after the experimental period. No dietary modification was suggested to the boys in this study. Results: Following 10 weeks of recreational football training, the football group achieved significant improvements in body fat% (-2.42%), fat mass (-0.93kg), abdominal fat (-0.06kg), 50-meter run (-0.9s), long jump (+7.6cm), core muscle strengths (front bridge increased 10.9s and side bridge increased 5.6s), and body balance (single-leg standing time increased 5.2s). The heart function during submaximal exercise and predicted maximal oxygen uptake were also significantly improved in the trained boys. There were no changes in these variables of the control group. There was no sport injury occurred during the training program. The daily energy intake was not changed for all boys before and after the interventions. Conclusion: the 10-week recreational football training is an effective method to improve the health-related physical fitness in 9- to 10-year-old boys

Pseudogenization of a Sweet-Receptor Gene Accounts for Cats' Indifference toward Sugar

Although domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) possess an otherwise functional sense of taste, they, unlike most mammals, do not prefer and may be unable to detect the sweetness of sugars. One possible explanation for this behavior is that cats lack the sensory system to taste sugars and therefore are indifferent to them. Drawing on work in mice, demonstrating that alleles of sweet-receptor genes predict low sugar intake, we examined the possibility that genes involved in the initial transduction of sweet perception might account for the indifference to sweet-tasting foods by cats. We characterized the sweet-receptor genes of domestic cats as well as those of other members of the Felidae family of obligate carnivores, tiger and cheetah. Because the mammalian sweet-taste receptor is formed by the dimerization of two proteins (T1R2 and T1R3; gene symbols Tas1r2 and Tas1r3), we identified and sequenced both genes in the cat by screening a feline genomic BAC library and by performing PCR with degenerate primers on cat genomic DNA. Gene expression was assessed by RT-PCR of taste tissue, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemistry. The cat Tas1r3 gene shows high sequence similarity with functional Tas1r3 genes of other species. Message from Tas1r3 was detected by RT-PCR of taste tissue. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemical studies demonstrate that Tas1r3 is expressed, as expected, in taste buds. However, the cat Tas1r2 gene shows a 247-base pair microdeletion in exon 3 and stop codons in exons 4 and 6. There was no evidence of detectable mRNA from cat Tas1r2 by RT-PCR or in situ hybridization, and no evidence of protein expression by immunohistochemistry. Tas1r2 in tiger and cheetah and in six healthy adult domestic cats all show the similar deletion and stop codons. We conclude that cat Tas1r3 is an apparently functional and expressed receptor but that cat Tas1r2 is an unexpressed pseudogene. A functional sweet-taste receptor heteromer cannot form, and thus the cat lacks the receptor likely necessary for detection of sweet stimuli. This molecular change was very likely an important event in the evolution of the cat's carnivorous behavior

Site-specific relationship between bone mineral density and muscle strength or endurance in elderly men

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between skeletal muscle function and bone mineral density (BMD) in elderly men. Three BMD values from the lumbar spine (L2-L4), femoral neck and distal radius and 12 muscle strength/endurance variables were measured from sixty-six healthy elderly men. We found that the lumber spine BMD correlated significantly with bench press, back strength, and knee extension/flexion; the femoral neck BMD associated strongly with lower limb muscle functions; and the distal radius BMD had positive correlation with 1RM and 15RM elbow flexion. This result demonstrates a site-specific relationship between BMD and muscle function in elderly men. This relationship, explained by the Wolff’s law, suggests the exercise of the regional muscles must be involved to improve or maintain the BMD at that anatomic position. In particular, lower limb muscle activity may benefit the BMD at the femoral neck, which may help prevent hip fractures in elderly men

Exercise training at the intensity of maximal fat oxidation in obese boys

The objectives of this study were to explore the effects of 10 weeks of exercise training at the intensity of maximal fat oxidation rate (FATmax) on body composition, cardiovascular fitness, and functional capacity in 8- to 10-year-old obese boys. This is a school-based interventional study. Twenty-six obese boys and 20 lean boys were randomly allocated into the exercise and control groups. Measurements of body composition, FATmax through gas analyses, predicted maximal oxygen uptake, and functional capacity (run, jump, abdominal muscle function, and body flexibility) were conducted at baseline and at the end of experiments. Two exercise groups participated in 10 weeks of supervised exercise training at individualized FATmax intensities, for 1 h per day and 5 days per week. FATmax training decreased body mass (–1.0 kg, p < 0.05), body mass index (–1.2 kg/m2, p < 0.01), fat mass (–1.2 kg, p < 0.01), and abdominal fat (–0.13 kg, p < 0.01) of the trained obese boys. Their cardiovascular fitness (p < 0.05) and body flexibility (p < 0.05) were also improved after training. The lean boys showed improvements in cardiovascular fitness after training (p < 0.05). FATmax training increased the FATmax in obese boys from 0.35 ± 0.12 g/min to 0.38 ± 0.13 g/min, but this change was not statistically significant. In addition, there was no change in daily energy intake for all participants before and after the experimental period. Results of this study suggest that FATmax is an effective exercise training intensity for the treatment of childhood obesity

Exercise training at the maximal fat oxidation intensity improved health-related physical fitness in overweight middle-aged women

Background/Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that exercise training at the maximal fat oxidation (FATmax) intensity would improve the health-related physical fitness in overweight middle-aged women. Methods: Thirty women (45e59 years old and BMI 28.2 ± 1.8 kg/m2) were randomly allocated into the Exercise and Control groups. Body composition, FATmax, predicted maximal oxygen uptake, heart function during submaximal exercise, stroke volume, left ventricular ejection fraction, trunk muscle strength, and body flexibility were measured before and after the experimental period. Results: Following the 10 weeks of supervised exercise training, the Exercise group achieved significant improvements in body composition, cardiovascular function, skeletal muscle strength, and body flexibility; whereas there were no changes in these variables of the Control group. There was also no significant change in daily energy intake for all participants before and after the interventions. Conclusion: The 10-week FATmax intensity training is an effective treatment to improve health-related physical fitness in overweight middleaged women

Investigation of core muscle function through electromyography activities in healthy young men

The purpose of this study was to investigate the electromyography (EMG) signal during eight isometric core exercises. Eighty healthy men (average 24.9 ± 1.4 yrs with body mass 64 ± 5 kg) participated as subjects. The surface EMG of the core muscles of 30 subjects was measured during eight isometric contractions and the EMG signal was recorded from core muscles. The four actions with the higher integral EMG were further applied in another group of 50 subjects to test their reliability. The isometric exercise of 'side bridge with single-leg raise' resulted in a significantly higher EMG than those of other exercises. This exercise showed a good reliability (ICC=0.77). Three other exercises also presented high EMG and ICC. In conclusion, the 'side bridge with single-leg raise' exercise is the most suitable single body movement to measure the functional capacity of core muscles in healthy young men