Abstract Aim: To compare muscular and cardiorespiratory parameters between Brazilian professional futsal athletes from different competitive levels (national versus regional). A secondary aim was to explore the correlation of physical fitness variables between both competitive levels. Methods: Twenty-two futsal players (24.7 ± 3.7 years), 11 from a regional team and 11 from a national team, were evaluated with countermovement jump test (lower limbs muscle power), square test (the speed with change direction), RSSA (anaerobic power), and YOYOIR1 (aerobic power). Tests were performed in the middle of the season for both teams. Results: The speed with change direction (p = 0.001) and mean anaerobic power (p = 0.04) were higher for national than the regional players. Sprint performance decreased similarly for national and regional level players (p < 0.001), but the latter had poorer performance (p = 0.044). From the fourth sprint on, sprints for the national level players were slower than the first three, while for the regional level players, each sprint speed was slower than the subsequent. A significant correlation was found between anaerobic power with jump height (r = −0.50; p = 0.01), speed with change direction (r=0.65; p = 0.001) and distance covered in the YOYOIR1 (r = −0.54; p = 0.01). Conclusion: National-level athletes were more agile and presented a higher mean anaerobic power than regional ones. Moreover, national-level athletes presented better performance along with repeated sprint tests, maintaining this performance for a longer time during the test.

ABSTRACT Objective To investigate the acute effects of EPAP on the activity of sternocleidomastoid (SCM), parasternal muscles and ventilatory parameters in COPD patients. Method Twenty-four patients with COPD were studied using surface electromyography (sEMG) and a ventilometer. Patients were randomly assigned to EPAP 10 cmH2O-EPAP10 or 15 cmH2O-EPAP15 for 20 minutes. Results The parasternal muscle sEMG activity increased during EPAP10 and EPAP15; however, a greater and significant increase was observed with EPAP10 (mean between-group difference: 12.5% RMS, 95% CI: 9.5 to 15.4, p<0.001). In relation to the baseline, at 10 and 20 minutes and upon recovery, respectively parasternal activity increased by 23.9%, 28.9% and 19.1% during EPAP10 and by 10.7% at 10 and 20 minutes and upon recovery, respectively, 11.4% and 6.9% during EPAP15 at 10 and 20 minutes and upon recovery, respectively. The sEMG activity of SCM muscle showed an opposite pattern, increasing with EPAP15 and decreasing with EPAP10 (mean between-group difference: 15.5% RMS, 95% CI: 12.6 to 18.4, p<0.001). SCM muscle activity during EPAP15, increased by 4.8% and 6.1% at 10 and 20 minutes and decreased by -4.0% upon recovery compared to decreases of –5.6%, –20.6% and –21.3% during EPAP10 at 10, 20 minutes, and recovery. Ventilation at both EPAP intensities promoted significant reductions in respiratory rate (RR) and dyspnea, more pronounced in EPAP15: RR (mean between-group difference: –3,8bpm, 95%CI: –7,5 to –0,2, p=0,015) and dyspnea (mean between-group difference: –1.01, 95%CI: –1.4 to –0.53, p=0.028) . Conclusion In COPD patients, the use of EPAP10 was more effective in reducing accessory inspiratory activity and increasing parasternal activity, which was accompanied by an improvement in ventilation and a reduction in dyspnea.

O objetivo do presente estudo foi verificar alterações no sinal eletromiográfico (EMG) durante contrações isométricas realizadas nos meios aquático e terrestre. Oito mulheres (23 ± 1 anos) realizaram contrações isométricas voluntárias máximas em um dinamômetro isocinético para o registro do pico do torque dos extensores do joelho e do sinal EMG do músculo vasto lateral (flexão do joelho em 90°) com e sem isolamento sobre os eletrodos de superfície. Em seguida, outra contração voluntária máxima foi realizada contra resistência fixa nos meios terrestre e aquático. Para a análise estatística utilizou-se o Teste T pareado, com a=0,05 (SPSS versão 11.0). Nenhuma diferença significativa foi encontrada entre os valores rmsEMG para o vasto lateral nas situações com (0,560 ± 0,118 mV) e sem (0,538 ± 0,110 mV) isolamento (p=0,306), para valores de pico de torque similares (p=0,191). Os mesmos resultados foram encontrados comparando os meios terrestre (0,428 ± 0,054 mV) e aquático (0,388 ± 0,105 mV) (p=0,446). O uso de adesivos resistentes à água não alterou o sinal EMG. Além disso, não houve diferenças nos valores rmsEMG durante a contração voluntária máxima realizada nos meios aquático e terrestre, sugerindo que o meio não influenciou a amplitude do rmsEMG.

The objective of the present study was to verify the electromiographic (EMG) signal alterations during isometric actions performed in water and on land. Firstly, 8 women (23 ± 1 yrs) performed maximal voluntary isometric actions in a isokinetic dynamometer to record the peak torque for knee extensors and the EMG signal of the vastus lateralis muscle (90° knee flexion) with and without superficial electrodes isolation. Subsequently, another maximal isometric action was performed against fixed resistance on land and in water immersion. For statistical analysis a paired T-Test was used, with a=0.05 (SPSS vs 11.0). No significant difference was found between vastus lateralis rmsEMG values for situations with (0.560 ± 0.118 mV) and without (0.538 ± 0.110 mV) isolation (p=0.306), for similar peak torque values (p=0.191). The same results were found comparing on land (0.428 ± 0.054mV) and in water immersion (0.388 ± 0.105 mV) situations (p=0.446). The water-resistant adhesive taping did not alter the EMG signal. Based in this finding, we found no differences on rmsEMG values during maximal isometric actions performed both in water and on land, suggesting that the environment did not influence the rmsEMG amplitude.

O objectivo do presente estudo foi analisar a frequência cardíaca e o consumo de oxigénio em exercícios de hidroginástica executados com e sem equipamento resistivo. A amostra foi composta por dez mulheres jovens que realizaram duas sessões de testes aquáticos, com os exercícios jumping jack e cross country sky realizados nas situações sem equipamento resistivo, com equipamento aquafins e com equipamento aqualogger, respeitando intervalos de 30 minutos. Para a coleta de dados de frequência cardíaca foi utilizado um frequencímetro S610 de oxigênio, um analisador de gases KB1-C (AEROSPORT). Utilizou-se ANOVA para medidas repetidas, post-hoc de Bonferroni e teste-t pareado (p<0.05). O cross country sky comparado ao jumping jack apresentou um comportamento mais elevado para ambas as variáveis, provavelmente, devido a uma maior amplitude de movimento e massa muscular envolvida no exercício. Ao compararmos as diferentes situações, no cross country sky foi observado um aumento estatisticamente significativo do consumo de oxigénio da situação sem equipamento para as situações com equipamento, enquanto que no jumping jack não foram observadas diferenças entre as situações. Já a frequência cardíaca apresentou diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre as três situações para ambos os exercícios. Assim, o uso do equipamento resistivo pode ser eficaz para aumentar as respostas cardiorespiratórias associado ao exercício realizado.

The aim of the present study was to analyse the heart rate and the oxygen uptake in hydrogymnastics exercises performed with and without the use of resistive equipment. The sample has been composed by ten young women who have undergone two sessions of aquatic tests, with the exercises jumping jack and cross country sky performed in the situations without resistive equipment, with the use of the aquafins equipment and with the use of the aqualogger equipment, which respected 30-minute breaks. For collecting heart rate and oxygen uptake data a S610 frequencimeter (POLAR) and a KB1-C gas analyser (AEROSPORT) were respectively used. ANOVA was used for repetitive measures, post-hoc Bonferroni and paired t-test (p<0.05). The cross country sky compared to the jumping jack showed a higher behavior for both variables due, probably, to a greater movement amplitude and greater muscle mass involved during the execution of the exercise. An increase statistically significant in the oxygen uptake has been observed in the cross country sky from the situation without equipment when compared with the situations with equipment. On the other hand, in the jumping jack have been noticed no differences between the situations. However, the heart rate has presented differences statistically significant among the three situations for both exercises. Therefore, the use of resistive equipment may be efficient in order to increase the cardiorespiratory responses related to the exercise done.