Correlates and predictors of obesity-specific quality of life of former participants of a residential intensive lifestyle intervention.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between weight loss during and after a unique type of weight loss intervention, namely, a residential intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI), and participants' obesity-specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL) several years after the intervention. In the residential ILI under investigation, participants attended a 10- to 12-week long course away from their daily living environment, namely, at Ubberup Folk High School located in Denmark. Methods: A total of 79 former participants (31 male, mean age 36.6; SD = 12.7 years) who had participated in the intervention on average 5.3 (SD = 3.2) years ago were recruited for this study. They completed a questionnaire on weight-related quality of life (IWQOL-lite) and physical activity, as well as measurements of VO2max, blood pressure, Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance, waist circumference and hand grip strength. Results: The study results showed that weight change after the end of the intervention could predict HRQOL whereas how much weight they lost during the intervention could not. Furthermore, almost all of the investigated physiological factors were related to participants' current HRQOL. Waist circumference showed relationships with four of the five aspects of HRQOL. Conclusion: Focusing on behavioural change, adhering to improved lifestyle and maintaining weight loss after the end of the intervention seem to be the key not only for cardio-metabolic risk factors but also for sustainable HRQOL.

The role of community in the development of elite handball and football players in Denmark.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the place of early development in a sample of Danish male elite and youth handball and football players. The sample included 366 handball and football players from the elite Danish league in the season 2011-2012 and a comparison sample of youth players under the age of 12 from 2003, including 147,221 football and 26,290 handball players. Odds ratio analysis showed that both population size and density significantly affected the proportional number of youth players per community and the odds of athletes reaching an elite level in football and handball. The odds for youth player registrations in both handball and football increased in rural in contrast to urban communities. However, elite football players primarily came from communities of high density (>1000 pop./km(2)), whereas elite handball players primarily came from less densely populated communities (100 to <250 pop./km(2)). Furthermore, there seems to be a relation between representation of elite and talent clubs in different communities and the probability of becoming an elite player in both sports. The limited number of elite players in both sports from rural communities may be due to national talent development strategies that do not incorporate development support for clubs in rural areas. Additionally, the results of the study clearly suggest the need to include the youth player population to advance research findings in birthplace effect studies.

Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports.

A controversial question within elite sports is whether young athletes need to specialize early, as suggested by Ericsson et al., or if it is more beneficial to follow the path of early diversification proposed by Côté et al., which includes sampling different sport experiences during childhood and specializing later on during adolescence. Based on a Danish sample of 148 elite and 95 near-elite athletes from cgs sports (sports measured in centimeters, grams, or seconds), the present study investigates group differences concerning accumulated practice hours during the early stages of the career, involvement in other sports, career development, as well as determining whether or not these variables predict membership in the elite group. The results clearly reveal that elite athletes specialized at a later age and trained less in childhood. However, elite athletes were shown to intensify their training regime during late adolescence more than their near-elite peers. The involvement in other sports neither differs between the groups nor predicts success. It can be concluded that factors related to the organization of practice during the mid-teens seem to be crucial for international success within cgs sports. Future research should adopt a longitudinal design with means of drawing causal inferences.

Experiencing flow in different types of physical activity intervention programs: three randomized studies.

This study explores whether inactive individuals can experience flow, a rewarding, psychological state, during an exercise intervention and if there are differences according to the type of intervention they perform. Furthermore, the study investigates if experiencing flow is connected to physiological improvements attained during the exercise intervention. The 12- to 16-week interventions included six randomized intervention groups, two female and four male groups performing continuous running, football, interval running and strength training. The results indicate that all six randomized exercise intervention groups experience rather high levels of flow regardless of whether the intervention is a team or individual sport. Differences in experiencing flow, worry and exertion as well as physiological improvements could be found for the different types of sports and the two genders, with the male football group having the highest score for physiological improvement and the lowest score for worry. A connection between experiencing flow and physiological improvement could not be found. Future research should investigate the influence that the participant's gender and also the type of sport have on experiencing flow, worry and perceived exertion. Furthermore, it should be investigated whether experiencing flow is linked to the long-term compliance of regular physical activity.