The fear of falling (FOF) limits the movements of the older adults, which, in turn, might impair postural mobility. An aquatic environment has a relatively low risk of falling and can improve motor abilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aquatic exercise on postural mobility of the healthy endomorph elderly somatotype. Therefore, 37 healthy endomorphic older adults with an average age of 64.38 ± 4.12 years participated in this study. Participants were randomly divided into four groups (i.e., Aquatic exercise, Dry-land exercise, Aquatic control, and Dry-land control). The Heath-Carter method was used to estimate the criterion somatotype, and the Tinetti method was used to determine postural mobility. Covariance analysis was used to examine the mean differences at a significance level of p < 0.05. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the aquatic exercise group and the two control groups (p < 0.01), and the dry-land exercise group was significantly different from the aquatic control (p < 0.05) and dry-land control groups (p < 0.01). The results indicate that the design of aquatic exercise programs, especially for endomorphic older adults with inappropriate body shape, for whom dry-land exercises are not appropriate, likely, has a positive effect on the motor control and both the balance and gait and provide appropriate postural mobility without FOF in older adults.

Background: Functional ankle instability (FAI) is a common consequence of ankle sprain injury, especially in high-impact sports. Objectives: To investigate the effect of six weeks of suspension training with total resistance exercises (TRX) on proprioception and muscle strength in female athletes with FAI. Methods: Thirty female athletes with FAI (age: 21.9 ± 2.2 years, height: 169.3 ± 4.2 cm, and weight: 59.8 ± 6.1 kg) were randomly assigned to two equally numbered groups: TRX training and controls based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. In the pre-test, the anthropometric variables and also proprioception accuracy and muscle strength of subjects were evaluated by joint angle reset test (JART) and manual muscle testing (MMT) in both dorsiflexion and plantarflexion motions. The training group completed three sessions per week with progressive load for six weeks, and each training session lasted 15 - 20 minutes, whilst control subjects continued with their normal activity without special sport activities. After six weeks of training, all tests performed in the pre-test phase were also performed in the post-test phase. The t-test was used for statistic analysis (α ≤ 0.05). Results: The findings showed that TRX training significantly improved the proprioception accuracy (P ≤ 0.001) and muscle strength (P ≤ 0.001) in the training group rather than the control group. No statistically significant difference was found in any of the tests between pre-test and post-test for the control group (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Six weeks of TRX suspension training had a positive effect on strength and proprioception accuracy in female athletes with FAI.

Sleep and Hypnosis - International Journal

Background: Social development is a fundamental aspect of motor development in children. It has been shown that children with learning disorders have different gross motor skills and physical activity compared to typically developing peers. Objectives: Since developmental domains interact with each other and children with learning disabilities often have difficulties that go far beyond those in school homework, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between physical activity and gross motor skills with social development for children with learning disabilities. Methods: In children with learning disorder (n = 82; 49 boys, 33 girls), gross motor skills and physical activity were assessed respectively with the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 and Past Year Physical Activity Questionnaire. Vineland Social Maturity Scale was used to evaluate the social development of participants. The Pearson correlation coefficient is used to association between variables. The significance for test was set at P < 0.05. Results: Locomotor and object-control were significantly associated with social development (r = 0.60, P < 0.001) and (r = 0.44, P = 0.003), respectively. Organized activities were significantly associated with social development (r = 0.69, P = 0.001). Also, gross motor skills and organized activities were able to predict the social development of children with learning disorder (R2 = 0.29, F = 15.78). Conclusions: Children with higher levels of organized activities and motor skills had higher social development. As a result, gross motor skills and organized physical activity are especially important for children with learning disabilities.