Background and Study Aim. Undergraduate women with overweight or obesity often face barriers to regular physical activity, which may contribute to unfavorable body composition and reduced functional fitness. This study examined the effects of a 20-week tailored physical activity program on body composition and functional fitness in this specific population. Materials and Methods. Fifty undergraduate women aged 18–24 years with overweight or obesity were allocated to an experimental group (EG; n = 25) or a control group (CG; n = 25). The EG completed two supervised 60-minute tailored physical activity sessions per week for 20 weeks, while the CG maintained usual activity. Body composition was assessed using bioelectrical impedance analysis, and functional fitness was evaluated through abdominal sit-ups, trunk extension, knee push-up, and squat tests. Time × Group effects were examined using mixed ANOVA. Results. Significant Time × Group interactions were observed for all body composition and functional fitness outcomes (all p < 0.001; ηp² = 0.55–0.86). The EG showed reductions in body weight (−5.33 kg), BMI (−2.00 kg/m²), body fat percentage (−4.07%), waist circumference (−4.62 cm), and hip circumference (−8.00 cm), alongside an increased muscle mass percentage (+2.02%). Functional fitness improved in all four tests, whereas the CG showed minimal or detrimental changes. Conclusions. Participation in a 20-week tailored physical activity program was associated with beneficial changes in body composition and functional fitness among undergraduate women with overweight or obesity. Tailored, inclusive physical activity programs may be feasible health-promotion strategies in higher education settings.
Background and Study Aim. Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) is used as a supplementary training approach to improve neuromuscular control and functional performance in athletes. Although DNS-based programmes may improve several aspects of athletic performance, the magnitude of the response may vary according to baseline performance and athlete characteristics. Therefore, the relative consistency of these functional responses across athletes with different performance levels, training backgrounds, and sporting disciplines remains of practical interest. The aim of the study was to determine whether the functional response to a six-week DNS-based programme differed according to baseline performance, sport type, sex, sport experience, and weekly training volume in athletes. Materials and Methods. In this randomized controlled study, 154 athletes were allocated to DNS plus usual training (experimental group: EG, n=77) or usual training alone (control group: CG, n=77). Seven outcomes were assessed: vertical jump, standing long jump, 10-m sprint, Cooper 12-minute run, plank endurance, agility T-test, and single-leg balance. Post-intervention values were analysed using ANCOVA adjusted for the baseline outcome, age, sex, sport experience, weekly training volume, and sport type, with HC3 standard errors. Exploratory, non-prespecified effect-modification analyses tested group-by-modifier interactions with Holm correction within each modifier family. Results. Fully adjusted ANCOVA with HC3 standard errors showed differences favouring DNS plus usual training in six of seven outcomes after Holm correction across the seven overall comparisons. The adjusted EG-minus-CG difference in plank endurance was +21.54 s (95% CI: 18.81–24.27); the Cooper difference was 10.4 m (95% CI: 1.8–18.9; Holm p=0.035). The overall sprint difference was -0.002 s (95% CI: -0.036–0.032; Holm p=0.919). No baseline, sex, sport-experience, or weekly-training-volume interaction remained significant within its seven-outcome family. The sport-by-sprint interaction remained significant (Wald chi-square=14.879, df=4; nominal p=0.005; Holm p=0.035), but was sensitive to individual observations and involved small, sex-imbalanced sport subgroups. Conclusions. Among the studied university athletes, adding six weeks of supervised DNS-based exercise to usual training was associated with better adjusted performance in six performance outcomes, although the aerobic difference was small and model-dependent. Exploratory analyses did not detect reliable modification by baseline performance, sex, sport experience, or weekly training volume.
Background and Study Aim. Agility is a complex motor skill involving rapid changes in direction, acceleration, deceleration, and postural control. Despite the use of various agility tests in physical education, the relationships between anthropometric characteristics, body composition, and performance on these tests remain of practical interest. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationships between anthropometric characteristics and indicators, body composition, and agility performance as assessed by three agility tests among Polish physical education students. Materials and Methods. The study included 347 undergraduate physical education students (245 men and 102 women) from the University of Rzeszów, Poland. Height (BH), body weight (BW), body fat percentage (BF%), fat mass (BF kg), fat-free mass (FFM), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), BMI, WHR, WHtR, and RFM were assessed. Agility was evaluated using the T-Test Agility, the Illinois Agility Test, and the Pro Agility Test. Relationships between variables were evaluated separately for men and women using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients, with statistical significance set at α = 0.05. Results. Men performed significantly better than women on all three agility tests (p < 0.001). Correlations among the agility tests were moderate in both men (rs = 0.46 to 0.57) and women (rs = 0.56 to 0.60), with all correlations being statistically significant (p < 0.001). Associations between anthropometric and body composition variables and agility performance were generally weak, with correlation coefficients mostly not exceeding rs = 0.20. Body fat-related indicators showed significant associations with agility performance more frequently than other somatic variables, whereas FFM was not significantly associated with any agility test in either sex. After Bonferroni correction, significant associations remained only in men between the Illinois Agility Test and BF% (rs = 0.20, p = 0.002) and BF kg (rs = 0.21, p = 0.001). Conclusions. Body fat should be considered as one of several factors associated with agility performance in physical education students, although its contribution appears to be limited given the generally weak relationships observed. The moderate correlations among the three agility tests indicate that the tests provide related but not equivalent information about agility performance. Therefore, the use of multiple agility tests may provide a more comprehensive assessment than reliance on a single test.
Background and Study Aim. Heart rate recovery (HRR) following exercise is a practical, noninvasive indicator of cardiovascular and cardiac autonomic function. Regular sports participation is associated with adaptations in resting cardiovascular function and recovery responses. Post-exercise HRR among young women in South Asian university settings is relevant to the assessment of cardiovascular recovery in this population. In particular, differences between trained and untrained women may vary according to whether recovery is assessed using absolute heart rate or expressed relative to individual heart-rate reserve. The present study therefore aimed to compare resting heart rate, absolute post-exercise heart rate recovery, and heart-rate-reserve-relative recovery between trained and untrained female university students in Bangladesh. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted among 40 female undergraduate students at Jashore University of Science and Technology (JUST), Bangladesh. Participants comprised university players (n = 20) and non-players (n = 20), aged 18–25 years. Body mass index (BMI), resting heart rate, and peak heart rate were assessed. Following a standardized warm-up, participants completed a progressive treadmill exercise bout to volitional exhaustion. Heart rate was continuously monitored using a Polar H10 chest strap, and recovery heart rate was recorded at 30-s intervals for 300 s following exercise. Recovery heart rate was analyzed as the observed heart rate at each recovery time point, while percentage heart-rate recovery (%HRR) was calculated relative to individual heart-rate reserve. Independent-samples t-tests were used for group comparisons at individual recovery time points, with Holm adjustment applied across the ten comparisons within each recovery outcome. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used for recovery heart rate across time, with statistical significance set at p < .05. Results. BMI did not differ statistically between players and non-players (21.42 ± 2.90 vs. 21.64 ± 3.44 kg/m²; p = .828), and peak heart rate also did not differ statistically (192.05 ± 7.39 vs. 191.75 ± 4.33 beats·min⁻¹; p = .876). Resting heart rate was lower in players than non-players (62.80 ± 6.92 vs. 74.20 ± 3.11 beats·min⁻¹; p < .001; d = −2.13). Recovery heart rate was lower in players at 60, 90, 120, and 300 s in the nominal analyses; however, none of the ten time-point comparisons remained statistically significant after Holm adjustment (adjusted p ≥ .070). The repeated-measures analysis showed a significant main effect of time (Wilks' Λ = .006, F[9,30] = 584.66, p < .001) and a significant between-subjects group effect (F[1,38] = 4.59, p = .039), but no time × group interaction (Wilks' Λ = .706, F[9,30] = 1.39, p = .237). For %HRR, none of the ten time-point comparisons was statistically significant after Holm adjustment (adjusted p ≥ .460). Conclusions. Female university players at JUST demonstrated a substantially lower resting heart rate than non-players. Recovery heart rate was lower in players at several individual time points in nominal testing, but these time-point differences were not statistically significant after Holm adjustment. The repeated-measures analysis indicated a significant overall group effect in recovery heart rate but no evidence that the shape of the recovery trajectory differed between groups. For %HRR, no time-point comparison remained statistically significant after multiplicity adjustment. These findings support a difference in resting heart rate and in the overall level of observed recovery heart rate, while providing limited evidence for a distinct reserve-relative recovery trajectory between the two groups.
Background and Study Aim. Contemporary educational environments are considered one of the factors associated with students’ psycho-emotional state, adaptation, and self-regulation. The spatial organization of educational environments shapes the conditions for students’ learning activities, recovery, and regulation of their state. Despite the use of specially designed spaces in educational institutions, their role in supporting student well-being, behavior, and self-regulation remains a subject of scientific and practical interest. This study aimed to systematically review research on resource spaces in educational environments and analyze their role in supporting student well-being, behavior, and self-regulation. Materials and Methods. A systematic literature search was conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and PubMed for the period 2015–2026. The initial combined corpus comprised 1,357 documents. Publications were selected through automated data cleaning, thematic filtering, and subsequent manual verification; 31 publications were included in the final analysis. The Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm was used for topic modeling. Data were synthesized using qualitative thematic analysis, considering the types of resource spaces, characteristics of the educational environments, and effects examined. Results. Analysis of the included studies showed that resource spaces primarily comprised sensory, relaxation, quiet, and adapted areas and were used either as elements of educational infrastructure or as settings for targeted interventions. Regarding student well-being, their use was associated with reductions in stress, anxiety, sensory load, and psycho-emotional load, as well as support for students’ emotional state. Regarding behavior, changes were observed in concentration, engagement, and the sustained nature of learning activities, with reductions in maladaptive responses among neurodivergent groups. Regarding self-regulation, resource spaces provided conditions for regulating stimulation levels, restoring attention, and controlling emotional states. The findings depended on environmental characteristics, including sensory load, lighting, acoustic conditions, spatial organization, accessibility, and opportunities for individual adaptation. Heterogeneity in study designs, samples, and outcome measures limited direct comparisons of the observed effects. Conclusions. Resource spaces may be considered as a functional component of educational environments providing conditions for recovery, reductions in psycho-emotional and sensory load, and the maintenance of students’ concentration and self-regulation. Their potential effectiveness is determined not only by the presence of a specially designed space but also by its sensory and spatial characteristics, accessibility, adaptability to individual needs, and integration into educational practice. Overall, the available evidence suggests that such spaces play a supportive role; however, heterogeneity in the evidence base necessitates further research using comparable designs, standardized measures, and assessments of long-term effects.
