This descriptive article explores the use of smart devices for health and wellness in the context of telehealth, highlighting rapidly evolving technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Key innovations, benefits, challenges, and opportunities related to the adoption of these technologies are outlined. The article provides a descriptive and accessible approach to understanding the evolution and impact of smart devices in the tele-exercise reality. Nowadays, technological advances provide solutions that were unthinkable just a few years ago. The habits of the general population have also changed over the past few years. Hence, there is a need to investigate this issue and draw the attention of the scientific community to this topic by describing the benefits and challenges associated with each topic. If individuals no longer go to exercise, the exercise must go to their homes instead.

The use of music during training represents a special paradigm for trainers to stimulate people undertaking different types of exercise. However, the relationship between the tempo of music and perception of effort during different metabolic demands is still unclear. Therefore, the aim of this research was to determine whether high intensity exercise is more sensitive to the beneficial effects of music than endurance exercise. This study assessed 19 active women (age 26.4 ± 2.6 years) during endurance (walking for 10′ at 6.5 km/h on a treadmill) and high intensity (80% on 1-RM) exercise under four different randomly assigned conditions: no music (NM), with music at 90–110 bpm (LOW), with music at 130–150 bpm (MED), and with music at 170–190 bpm (HIGH). During each trial, heart rate (HR) and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were assessed. Repeated analysis of variance measures was used to detect any differences between the four conditions during high intensity and low intensity exercise. RPE showed more substantial changes during the endurance exercises (11%), than during high intensity exercise (6.5%), between HIGH and NM conditions. The metabolic demand during the walking exercise increased between NM and HIGH bpm conditions. This study indicates the benefits of music under stress conditions as well as during endurance and high intensity training. The results demonstrate that the beneficial effects of music are more likely to be seen in endurance exercise. Consequently, music may be considered an important tool to stimulate people engaging in low intensity physical exercise.

Several observational studies have shown that exercise reduces the risk of cognitive decline; however, evidences from long-term, well-conducted, randomized controlled trials are scanty. The principal aim of this study is to verify whether a long-term program of multimodal supervised exercise improves the cognitive function and/or reduces the rate of cognitive decline in older adults at different degrees of risk for dementia. EPD is a parallel group, double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Community-dwelling volunteers aged 50 years or more are being recruited from different community centers and screened for eligibility. Enrolled subjects are being divided in 3 groups: a) without subjective or objective cognitive impairment, b) with subjective memory complaints, and c) with mild cognitive impairments. Participants in each group (at least 180) are being randomly assigned (1:1) to an experimental group, performing a supervised training including aerobic and resistance exercises of moderate/high intensity, or to a control group. Primary outcome will be 48-months changes in Mini Mental State Examinations. Secondary outcomes will be changes in several cognitive tests including a composite cognitive score. Time points will be at baseline, and at 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months. Statistical analysis will be done as intention to treat, complete case and mixed model analysis. EPD is the first trial to examine the effects of a long exercise program (48 months) on cognitive performances. If successful, this trial may provide evidence for using long-term and multimodal exercise interventions for dementia prevention programs in the aging population. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the code NCT02236416 .

Dhahbi, W, Padulo, J, Russo, L, Racil, G, Ltifi, M-A, Picerno, P, Iuliano, E, and Migliaccio, GM. Four- to 6-repetition maximum and 1-repetition maximum estimation in free-weight bench press and smith machine squat based on body mass in male athletes. J Strength Cond Res 38(8): 1366–1371, 2024—This study aimed to explore the feasibility and face validity of predicting maximum strength 1 repetition maximum (1-RM) and 4–6 RM in athletes across different sports specialties, based on the relationship between muscle strength and BM. One hundred fifteen male athletes, aged 23.63 ± 6.77 years and participating in diverse sports specialties, were included in this study. Muscle strength was assessed using the 4–6 RM and 1-RM tests in free-weight bench press (BP) and Smith machine squat (SQ) exercises, whereas BM was measured using a portable digital scale. A linear regression equation based on muscle strength and BM was performed. The 4–6 RM and 1-RM scores showed excellent intersession relative reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient _(2,1) : 0.946–0.989) and absolute reliability (CV: 3.4–4.7%) in both BP and SQ exercises. In addition, the magnitude of the relationship and the coefficients used to estimate the 4–6 RM and 1RM, based on BM, differed among the subjects when they are grouped according to their sports specialties ( R ² ranged from non-significant to 0.998). Overall, the 4–6 RM test showed a stronger correlation with BM ( R : 0.655 for SQ and R : 0.683 for BP) than the 1RM ( R : 0.552 for SQ and R : 0.629 for BP), and the general (i.e., not sport-specific) 4 to 6-RM prediction equations should be preferred over sport-specific ones because they are statistically more robust due to the larger sample size. In conclusion, the 4–6 RM can be predicted from BM with high reliability, a moderate association, and a prediction error that, when considering the 4–6 RM as a starting point for estimating of the 1RM, can be considered entirely acceptable in practical settings.