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BACKGROUND: The study objective was intended to verify whether the practice of maternal physical activity during the pregnancy period could be assumed as a contribution to the acquisition of postural patterns in the child during its first year of life. METHODS: A transversal and descriptive study was carried where we recorded the developments observed in a sample of 80 Portuguese children, according to the habits and type of physical activity of the mothers. Statistical descriptive and inferential test were performed. RESULTS: The results were clearly positive in terms of temporal gains of neck tonic control, and also in the acquisition of an erect position. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the average values are not statistical significant we have observed indicators that the maternal physical activity during pregnancy apparently is a factor that can favor the child’s motor development during their first year of life, particularly in the acquisition of postural patterns.

BACKGROUND: Warm-up is considered essential to optimize running performance, but little is known about the effect of specific warm-up tasks, specifically in the real competitive context. The current study aimed to verify the acute effects of a warm-up including ballistic exercises in 30m running performance. In addition, a second 30m trial was assessed to better understand the warm-up effects in training/competition. METHODS: Twenty-two men (19.32±1.43 years-old) randomly completed the time- trials on separate days and after a typical warm-up (WU), a WU complemented with ballistic exercises (post-activation potentiation - PAP) or no warm-up (NWU). Biomechanical, physiological and psychophysiological variables were assessed. RESULTS: The participants were 1.9% faster in the first 30m sprint after WU compared with NWU, mainly increased performance in the first 15m (p=0.03, ES=0.48). WU resulted in greater stride length in the last 15m of the first sprint. PAP did not differ from NWU and WU, despite eight participants performed better after this warm-up. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the positive effects of warm- up for sprinting, despite failed to evidence positive effects when ballistic exercises are included. In addition, the influence of warm-up in the running technique was highlighted by the changes in the running kinematics and a need for individualization of warm-up procedures.

This work is a review with a main objective: to develop knowledge about physical activity in neurotrophic factors. We have outlined three objectives within the affective, psychomotor and cognitive domains. These are respectively: the value of the practice of physical activity (PA) and to explain the relationship between the practice of PA and neurotrophic fac- tors. For the accomplishment of this work, informative documents were searched through Google Scholar, Online Library of Knowledge (B-ON), PubMed and Scopus DataBase. The study addresses the concept of PA, the benefits and factors associated with adherence, persistence and abandonment of regular physical activity and in a second phase the concept of neurotrophic factors and the relationship that exists between the practice of PA and neurotrophic factors. Physical exercise increases the expression of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). A connection has been established between physical exercise, the levels of this neurotrophin and its beneficial effects on the brains of animals and humans. It has recently been shown that exercises sessions are capable of increasing serum and plasma BDNF con- centration in addition to an increase in BDNF expression in skeletal muscle. In this review will be approached the effect of physical exercise on the expression of BDNF in the brain. Recent studies have shown that there is a potential benefit in increasing BDNF expression and release by brain and some peripheral tissues, induced by exercise, resulting in an improvement in brain function.

PURPOSE: There are few or even rare studies conducted in Cabo Verde that address the issue of physical fitness and body composition in the juvenile population. This investigation aims to study the Physical Fitness in children in Cabo Verde: differences between gender, eutrophic and overweight subjects, between practitioners and non-practitioners of sports. METHODS: The sample consisted of 93 individuals aged between 10 and 15 years, from the 2nd and 3rd cycles and secondary school of the Portuguese College based in Cabo Verde. The instruments used for data collection were the FITescola® test battery, and the questionnaire (QAPACE) (Quantification de l’activite physique en altitude chez les enfants) for assessment of physical activity level. Regarding the statistical analysis using the SPSS 23.0 Software, the first analysis was performed to verify the distribution of the sample (Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-wilk). Then, for variables with normal distribution we used the t-test and for the remaining variables with nonnormal distribution we used the Mann-Whitney test, with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: Gender differences were found, in which the male gender obtained more favorable mean values in the “sit-ups”, “push-ups”, “horizontal impulsion”, “shuttle” and “agility” variables, while the females showed superiority in the variables “sit and reach”; differences between the eutrophic and overweight group where, as expected, more favorable mean values for eutrophics than the overweight group in all PF tests. Finally, differences between practitioners and nonpractitioners of sports, with the best results being attributed to practitioners of sports. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that male subjects have greater proficiency in strength and aerobic fitness tests while female subjects have greater flexibility. High BMI values in overweight children have been found to be associated with increased abdominal fat as well as a reduction in overall PF. As expected, sports practitioners show better results in motor performance on PF tests.