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- Introduction: The human visual system plays a critical role in high-performance tasks, including sports and activities requiring visuomotor performance. While supercompensation is well-documented in aerobic exercise, its effects on visual performance following anaerobic exercise remain unclear. This study investigates whether short-term exhaustive exercise enhances post exercise visual performance, with a focus on accommodation facility, saccadic eye movements, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, hand-eye coordination, and visual memory. Methods: A randomised controlled trial was conducted with 128 participants. Participants completed baseline visual assessments followed by a 30-s Wingate Anaerobic Test (n = 68) or no intervention (control group) (n = 60). The same visual tests were repeated immediately post-exercise. Statistical analyses included t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and effect size calculations (Cohen’s d). Multiple comparison corrections (Bonferroni and Holm) were applied to control for family-wise error rates. Results: The experimental group demonstrated significantly greater improvements in visual performance compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Large effect sizes were observed for hand-eye coordination (ES = 1.539), accommodation facility (ES = 1.138), speed of recognition (ES = 1.007), and peripheral awareness (ES = 0.823). Moderate effect sizes were noted for saccadic eye movements for both the left and right charts (ES = 0.679). Post-hoc multiple comparison corrections confirmed significant improvements in speed of recognition, hand-eye coordination, and peripheral awareness (P < 0.000), while accommodation facility showed marginal significance before correction but became non-significant afterward. Visual memory did not significantly differ between groups (P = 0.065). Conclusion: This study highlights that short-term exhaustive exercise can induce transient enhancements in visual performance, particularly in tasks requiring rapid recognition, coordination, and peripheral awareness.
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- Background: Research pertaining to the superiority of athletes’ visio-spatial expertise when compared to non-athletes is conflicting. This discrepancy may arise due to a superiority in athletes in only specific visio-spatial skills (VSS) and not all aspects of vision. Aims: The aim of this study was to discern whether rugby players have superior VSS/expertise in comparison to non-athletes, when comparing six visual skills (accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, visual memory and hand–eye coordination). Methods: The participants underwent an optometric assessment, after which the VSS components of non-athletes and premier league rugby players were assessed by using six different existing tests namely; the Hart Near Far Rock, saccadic eye movement, evasion, accumulator, flash memory and ball wall toss tests. Results: A statistically significant (p ≤ .05) difference existed between rugby players and non-athletes for five out of the six tests. Conversely, no real evidence is shown that visual memory differs between rugby players and non- athletes (p = .599). Conclusion: This study found that rugby players have an enhanced accommodation facility, saccadic eye movements, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness and hand–eye coordination, but not visual memory, when compared to non-athletes. These findings of a superiority of rugby players in specific VSS have broad implications for theories of sport vision, how best to select tests and in the development of sport-specific VSS testing batteries.
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- Background: Despite it being purported that acute, prolonged maximal periods of exercise may impair visual performance, little/no research on this topic is forthcoming. In fact, research has demonstrated that sub-maximal and maximal acute exercise may actually improve cognitive and sensory tasks and thus possibly improve visual performance. Objectives: This study aimed to ascertain the influence of an acute, prolonged maximal bout of exercise on visual performance. Methods: A quantitative study was undertaken with 60 untrained males being divided into a control group (CON; n = 30) or treatment group (TRE; n = 30). Both groups completed a baseline vision test battery consisting of accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, visual memory, and hand-eye coordination using the following tests; Hart Near Far Rock, saccadic eye movement, evasion, accumulator, flash memory and Ball Wall Toss tests. Two weeks later, participants returned for follow-up testing using the same vision test battery, with the TRE participants first engaging in a standardized incremental maximal treadmill protocol immediately prior to their vision testing. Results: Following the incremental maximal treadmill protocol, statistical analyses indicated that statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) differences existed for accommodation facility, saccadic eye movements, speed of recognition, hand-eye coordination, peripheral awareness, and visual memory between pre-test and after the aerobic treatment (P = 0.00 for all measures). Conclusions: This study indicates that an acute, prolonged maximal bout of running improves visual performance. As such, an appropriate prolonged maximal warm-up may be required as opposed to a standardized and general warm-up when preparing an athlete for visual skills training or for participation in an athletic event that requires optimal visual performance.
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- 2022| Taylor & FrancisClinical relevance All-out exercise may not impair all central nervous system processes, such as those related to visual-motor abilities, and may actually prove stimulatory to such tasks allowing athletes and sports conditioning specialists to develop strategies to take advantage of/mitigate the effects of such exercise on athletic performance. Background Despite research indicating that visual-motor abilities play a critical role in athletic performance, research has primarily focused on the effect of all-out exercise on processes along the motor pathway, such as resultant force production or simple cognitive tasks. Such research has neglected to investigate the effect of all-out exercise on visual tasks. When investigations on visual tasks are forthcoming, they focus on prolonged aerobic exercise, which is not the primary metabolic pathway for all, or even the majority of sports. Methods Sixty untrained males (experimental group; N = 30, control group; N = 30) completed a standardised six-item baseline sports vision test battery and one week later, the experimental participants returned to undertake a 30-second Wingate anaerobic test (30-WAnT) immediately followed by the same test battery. Results Significant (P < 0.05) improvements were found in accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness and hand-eye coordination (P < 0.001 for all), but not visual memory (P = 0.242) following the 30-WAnT. Conclusions Although the mechanisms underlying these improvements in visual task performance have not yet been studied, this study suggests that simple anaerobic all-out exercise does not cause central- or brain-based fatigue impairing the oculomotor system but may rather provide “excitability” of the underlying motor cortex, motoneurons and/or corticofugal connections utilised in visual task response. It appears that the sweeping improvements in visual task performance elucidate the need for an intense anaerobic warm-up when training visual skills and when visual skills form an integral part of athletic performance.
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- In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where healthcare resources may be limited, the elderly are especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The aging population in these regions presents unique challenges, highlighting the urgent need for effective, accessible, and culturally appropriate interventions to address this cardiovascular health challenge in older adults. We aimed to evaluate the impact of traditional dance and games on cardiovascular health outcomes in LMICs through a scoping review of existing literature. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, EBSCO, SPORT Discuss, Web of Science, and the grey literature were searched from 2000 to 20 September 2024. Two reviewers independently screened the titles, abstracts, and full texts and conducted data extraction. All conflicts were resolved with a third reviewer. A total of 3465 records were identified, of which 12 full-text articles were included in the review. The studies, five randomised clinical trials and seven non-randomised clinical trials, included varied age groups and populations including healthy, sedentary and obese participants. The interventions were traditional dance and games interventions with some extension to nutrition education. All the interventions were short term, with less than 6 months follow-up. Any traditional dance styles and games that involve physical performance can induce positive health outcomes. Undertaking traditional dance and games (TDGs) is equally effective on cardiovascular, functional and metabolic adaptations, leading to comparable improvements in older adults as for other forms of structured exercise. Collaboration of health practitioners, legislators, non-governmental agencies and local communities in LMICs in using TDGs may reduce the burden of CVDs.
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- Resistance training (RT) is increasingly recommended for incorporation into comprehensive fitness or “exercise as medicine” programs. However, the acute effects of RT, and especially its different sub-types, and how they impact health outcomes are not fully investigated. This study evaluated German Volume Training (GVT) (“10 set × 10 rep scheme”) for its efficacy for its use in health settings. This study utilized a randomized crossover design with subjects serving as their own controls to establish baseline values. Subjects were blinded to the study hypothesis. Subjects performed a single session of GVT or no exercise, in a randomised order separated by a 1-week washout period. Outcomes were assessed before and immediately post-exercise. GVT significantly (p < 0.05) decreased systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP), but increased heart rate (HR), rate pressure product (RPP) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE). No changes were found in the measured spirometry parameters. Increases were observed in carbon dioxide production (VCO2) and minute ventilation (VE), but not respiratory exchange ratio. Post hoc analysis demonstrated that post-GVT values were significantly lower for SBP (p = 0.017; d = 1.00), DBP (p = 0.013; d = 0.90), MAP (p = 0.024; d = 1.06), and VCO2 (p = 0.009; d = −1.32), and significantly higher for RPP (p = 0.001; d = −3.11), RPE (p = 0.001; d = −14.14), and HR (p = 0.001; d = −3.00). This study indicates that acute GVT promotes post-exercise hypotension and is of sufficient intensity to increase both objective HR and subjective RPE intensities appropriately for use in a variety of health promotion settings.
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- 2022| Frontiers MediaIn ball sports such as soccer, the visual system is critical in guiding a player’s search for crucial information that underpins skillful behavior, which requires the incorporation of all of the relevant information in the environment in order to make successful decisions under pressure. However, vision in sport, and focusing on the specific visual skills required to be successful in a particular sport has largely been a practice ignored by experts and coaches as being an essential component of athletic performance. This is the first attempt to summarize and compile the necessary visual skills for soccer. This review’s evidence suggests that, while current research still tends to focus on visual skills as a whole, there is a need to streamline this focus to the necessities of a particular sport. Furthermore, in identifying the visual skills essential for soccer, it allows for the active training and testing of these skills, as well as for talent identification.
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