Why We Must Prioritize Equitable Access to Physical Activity for Children with Disabilities
Providing children with disabilities equal access to quality education is a central tenet of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This four-part American legislation governs how states, schools and public agencies provide special education and related services to more than 6.5 million children across the country. Within this legislation, students are entitled to free […]
Mythbusting | Youth Resistance Training
Myth: Lifting weights is unsafe for children and will stunt their growth. One of the most common myths associated with youth fitness programs is that resistance training is unsafe and harmful to the developing skeleton of children. Unfortunately, these outdated views persist today and some parents and caregivers question if children should lift weights in […]
Gunnar A.V. Borg (November 28, 1927 – February 2, 2020) | A Multilayered Legacy
It is a rare achievement for a researcher’s name to be recognized, and for a body of work to be appreciated, across all the diverse subdisciplines of exercise science. Gunnar Borg is one such name, and his research on perceived exertion is one such body of work. Gunnar Borg passed away earlier this month, at […]
Disparities in the Quality of Physical Activity Environments
There are race, ethnic and socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in physical activity. The disparities differ by domain of physical activity (e.g., occupation, transportation), but there is consistent evidence that leisure time physical activity is lower among individuals with lower income and members of most race and ethnic minority groups. One possible explanation of these disparities […]
How to Craft Your Article Title to Increase Views and Citations
Most academics use the citation count of their peer-reviewed publications to assess the impact of their research. Unfortunately, a substantial proportion of published articles are poorly cited, which suggests a minimal contribution by this work to the knowledge in a field. For example, Kortlever et al. found that 36% of the 135,029 articles published in 204 orthopedic journals between […]
Training the Nervous System after Stroke
Neurotraumatic injury such as stroke is not typically symmetrical. So, it is no surprise that such damage results in a more affected side, which results in more dramatic muscle weakness and spasticity. However, evidence suggests that some human movements have conserved neural linkages even post-stroke. Thus, training the more affected side made indeed enable the […]
Physical Activity and Function in Older Age: It’s Never too Late to Start!
Despite the known benefits of physical activity to health and physical function in aging, the proportion of older adults meeting recommended physical activity guidelines remains low (27%). Since the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans were published, considerable evidence has emerged regarding the relative benefits of various modes or combinations of physical activity, such as progressive resistance training, multicomponent […]
High-Intensity Interval Training: For Fitness, for Health or Both?
That which was old is new again. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been a common component of exercise regimens designed to improve fitness and performance for many generations. In recent years, research interest has surged. A simple search of PubMed for the term “high-intensity interval training” reveals a more than 20-fold increase in the number […]
Air Quality and Outdoor Exercise
There is incontrovertible evidence linking poor air quality to adverse health outcomes. This is especially true for people with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, stroke, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, healthy people are at risk too. Exposure to air pollution has been linked to a higher risk of developing asthma, and recent […]
What’s New in the ACSM Pronouncement on Exercise and Hypertension?
Hypertension is a Pervasive Public Health Problem The American College of Cardiology (ACC)/ American Heart Association (AHA) Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines recently redefined hypertension to a lower blood pressure (BP) threshold of 130 mmHg for systolic BP (SBP) or 80 mmHg for diastolic BP (DBP) (1) versus the Joint National Commission 7 (JNC […]