SOREN Student Sports & Health Open Researches e-Journal: New-Approaches

Exercise contributes significantly to the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of athletes. The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on societies around the world and has led to significant restrictions on all sections of society, including sport. Lack of long-term training leads to detraining and deconditioning, which is a known risk to the physical and mental health of athletes. The gradual resumption of exercise and safe sports can significantly help to restore normalcy in athletes. Swimming, like other sports, was affected, and all swimming pools were closed due to COVID-19. As a result, many people underwent a condition of unfitness. There is a need to provide a framework and initial recommendations for a safe return to the sport based on current knowledge about COVID-19. The purpose of this review article is to understand the course of COVID-19 and to develop guidelines for the resumption of swimming in Iran, including the considerations and recommendations of various health organizations such as WHO, CDC, etc.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a new member of the human coronavirus family that was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), has caused more of the 400 million cases and 5 million deaths worldwide. Vaccines are considered the main hope in stopping and ending the COVID-19 epidemic. The success of vaccines depends largely on immunological memory. People at high risk for COVID-19 re-infection show no evidence of B-cell memory. Also, 20% of infected patients do not develop an antibody response. Clinical trials and cross-sectional studies have reported different results on the effect of exercise on vaccination performance. The aim of this review study is to show that exercise plays an important role in preventing re-infection and creating better protective responses after vaccination. The results showed that regular exercise training increased the response of secondary B cell memory antibodies and reduced the severity of re-infection and adverse effects of vaccines.

Background and aim: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep quality, physical activity, and dietary pattern with the mental health of University of Kashan students. It has been concluded in various studies that unhealthy behavioral habits, in addition to physical illnesses, have a noticeable role in increasing the prevalence and intensity of mental illnesses.

Methods: This research is practical in terms of purpose and relational in terms of research type. The statistical population of the study included about 8059 students of University of Kashan in 1400. A sample of 112 individuals was selected by the available sampling method and based on Tabachnick and Fidell formulas. Research tools included the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), Sharkey physical activity index (SPAI), and symptom checklist 90 (SCL90). The reliability of the questionnaires was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. SPSS 22 was used to analyze obtained data.

Results: The findings indicate that higher sleep quality, physical activity, and frequent intake of dietary supplements have a significant negative effect on the symptoms of mental illness.

Conclusion: These results show that paying attention to students' health behaviors may reduce the burden of mental illnesses. It is suggested that universities improve students' mental health by teaching them about sleep hygiene, principles of healthy eating, and providing online physical activity programs.

Background and aim: These days, in addition to high activity indoors, the outbreak of COVID-19 virus may also cause physical inactivity in women. Due to the importance of women's exercise, the aim of this study was to investigate the quality of life and self-confidence of athletes and non-athletes women in Kermanshah during the outbreak of COVID-19 virus.

Methods: This research method was descriptive and survey type. The statistical population of this study consisted of women in Kermanshah. The sample size was 384 according to the Morgan table. The sampling method was simple random. The measurement tools in this study included the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire consisting of 26 questions whose subscales were: physical health, mental health, social relations, environmental health, and a general score. The Eysenck’s (1979) self-confidence test consists of 30 general context questions on the type of adjustment stability versus emotional instability. The validity of the questionnaires was reviewed and approved by 10 professors of sports management. The reliability of the questionnaires was also confirmed by Cronbach's alpha test. The data analysis was done with descriptive and inferential statistics (Kolmogorov-Smirnov and independent t-test) using SPSS₂₀ software.

Results: The results showed that the quality of life as well as self-confidence in athletes’ women and women who exercise at least 3 days a week was significantly higher than inactive women.

Conclusion: It is recommended, especially for women who have neglected exercise due to their busy work at home during the COVID-19 virus outbreak, to devote part of their time to physical activity.

Background and aim: Self-regulation refers to the ability of individuals to set sports goals, maintain a path to progress toward training goals, and understand the personal rewards of doing sports behavior. The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the regulation of sports behavior of track and field athletes.

Methods: The present study was practical in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of research type; data collection was performed in the field. The statistical population included the country's athletes. A sample of 216 individuals was selected based on the 10 to 15 times the number of questions method. In order to collect data, a standard questionnaire of sports behavior regulation was used (Markland and Tobin, 2004). SPSS₂₃ and LISREL 80/80 software were used to analyze the data.

Results: The results showed that there is a significant priority among the components of sports behavior regulation. Accordingly, the most important priority is related to the component of "internal regulation", followed by "inward regulation", "lack of motivation" and "external regulation". Also, there is a significant correlation (P < 0.01) between all components of sports behavior regulation and a significant negative correlation between "lack of motivation" and other components (P < 0.01). Finally, it was found that the structural equation model of the research has a significant fit.

Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be said that increasing the amount of internal and external motivation reduces lack of motivation in athletes and vice versa. Therefore, coaches should always try to strengthen athletes in terms of external and internal motivation to regulate athletic behavior in them and achieve the desired results in sports competitions.

Background and aim: Due to the role of neural adaptations in strength changes following detraining, this study aimed to determine the adaptations of corticospinal excitatory pathways in agonist and antagonist arm muscles after 4 weeks of detraining, after a period of resistance training using TMS variables.

Methods: 12 healthy untrained individuals (training group (N=10) and pilot group (N=2)) with a mean age of 28.00 ± 2.04 years and a weight of 70.91±8.52 kg voluntarily participated in this study. At week 0 (pre-test), week 4 of training, week 2 of detraining, and week 4 of detraining, arm circumference (AURC), 1- RM, Co-activation, and corticospinal excitability (MEP) were measured.

Results: The results of the present study showed that strength in agonist's muscle had a significant reduction (10%) after 4 weeks of detraining. The antagonist muscle, similar to the agonist's muscle, responded to detraining (2.5% in week 2 and 8% in week 4 of detraining). Also, 4 weeks of detraining was associated with a decrease in MEP in both muscles (p =0.003). The results of linear regression showed that strength changes were not related to excitability in both muscles.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that corticospinal responses to detraining in the upper body are not limited to trained muscles and detraining reduces corticospinal excitatory pathway, but no difference was observed between agonist and antagonist muscles in this period.

Background and aim: In December 2019, the prevalence of a viral disease was reported in Wuhan, China. Due to the high contagion power, it spread rapidly and infected almost all the countries of the world in a relatively short period (less than four months). It also caused the lockdown and quarantine of societies and cities. Hence, the aim of the present study was to scrutinize the way wrestlers spend their free time in quarantine time to prevent COVID-19.

Methods: The statistical population of this study included wrestlers in the age group of adolescents, youth, and adults in Ardabil. A sample of 340 individuals was selected. The research instruments were a questionnaire including demographic information and a researcher-made leisure questionnaire. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA using SPSS₂₂ software with the significant level of P < 0.05.

Results: The outcomes of the present study demonstrated that wrestlers allocated on average less than 2 hours of their time to the leisure components and there was no statistically significant relationship between demographic variables and the total score of how they spent their leisure time (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Finally, if the existing condition continues, regarding less mobility and quarantine and the diseases increase due to inactivity of individuals will increase the costs of treatment and will affect all the health-centered policies of the countries. Therefore, it is required to inform and educate planning for leisure time, not only in the field of sports but also in other fields and subcomponents of leisure through media and social media networks.

Background and aim: Among the various characteristics, the one that can help a person to know himself and others better is personality. Many studies have shown that athletes are more prone to personality disorders compared to the general public. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the prevalence of personality disorders in female bodybuilders.

Methods: This research was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The subjects included 100 female bodybuilders in Qarchak city of Varamin in Tehran province in 2020 with 10 active clubs in this city who were selected through available sampling. Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III) questionnaire was used to collect research data.

Results: The age range of bodybuilders was 18-57 years with a mean of 32.37% and SD = 8.72. Most of the participants had a diploma. The results showed that there was a significant difference at the level of α = 0.01 between the theoretical means with the experimental means in the "hysterical" and "narcissistic" scales related to the patterns of clinical personality as well as in the "borderline" and "paranoid" scales which related to severe personality pathology. In these scales, unlike "borderline", the experimental means are higher than the theoretical average.

Conclusion: The findings showed that the prevalence of narcissistic, hysterical, and paranoid disorders in female bodybuilders was higher than expected while borderline personality disorder was lower than expected.