Previous research has demonstrated that professional mixed martial arts (MMA) athletes employ a variety of weight manipulation strategies to compete at given weight classes. Although there is much literature demonstrating weight manipulation methods, minimal research exists analyzing how much weight MMA athletes lose prior to the official weigh-in. Moreover, there is minimal research examining how much weight professional MMA athletes gain between the official weigh-in and competition. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to analyze weight loss/regain in professional MMA athletes. Data collected from 616 professional MMA athletes (31.1 ± 4.0 yrs.; 177.1 ± 4.7 cm) competing for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) between 2020 and 2022 were used for the study. The athlete\'s weight was obtained 72 h, 48 h, and 24 h prior to the official weigh-in, at the official weigh-in, and prior to competition. Random effects analysis was utilized to compare weight at a variety of time points between different weight classes. All statistics were analyzed, and significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. There is a significant (p ≤ 0.05) difference between weight classes and time points in professional MMA. MMA athletes decrease body weight significantly prior to the official weigh-in. MMA athletes increase body weight significantly between official weigh-in and competition. Based on these data, it appears that MMA athletes average a weight loss of nearly 7% within 72 h prior to the official weigh-in. The data also suggest that athletes gain nearly 10% of total weight between the official weigh-in and competition.

The COVID-19-related closing of schools and sport facilities resulted in major changes to daily routines worldwide. It was the aim of this study to investigate the impact of COVID-19-related mitigation measures on the health and fitness status of primary school children in Austria. Seven hundred and eight primary school children (7-10 years old) participated in the longitudinal study. Data on height, weight, waist circumference, and fitness were collected before (September 2019) and during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 20, September 20, March 21, June 21). A significant increase in EQUI BMIAUT (ηp2 = 0.087) and significant changes (ηp2 = 0.355) in waist circumference were found. Cardiorespiratory endurance (ηp2 = 0.440) and action speed (ηp2 = 0.221) decreased dramatically following lockdowns/school closures. In contrast, muscle strength showed no significant changes. The COVID-19-related mitigation measures intended to contain a communicable disease resulted in an acceleration of the pre-existing pandemic of overweight and obesity. The adverse combination of increasing BMI and the loss of physical fitness is likely to result in long-term negative effects on the health status of growing and developing individuals. Health professionals should therefore not only support further longitudinal observations of this \"non-communicable disease\" but also support intervention programs to reverse this worrying side-effect of COVID-19-associated containment policies.

Monitoring of anthropometric and physical fitness parameters in primary school children is important for the prevention of future health problems. Many of the existing test batteries that are useful for monitoring require expensive test materials, specialized test administrators, and a lot of space. This limits the usefulness of such tests for widespread use. The aim of this pilot study was to design and evaluate monitoring tools for anthropometrics and physical fitness tests in primary schools, called AUT FIT. The test battery consists of height, weight, and waist circumference measurement and eight fitness tests (6 min run, V sit-and-reach, jumping sideways, standing long jump, medicine ball throw, 4 × 10 m shuttle run, ruler drop, single leg stand). Data of 821 children aged 7 to 10 years were gathered. Most AUT FIT tests showed excellent test-retest and interrater reliability and were easy to implement. Criterion-related validity was evident by a strong correlation between physical education teacher rankings and rank scores for motor fitness. Nationwide implementation in the Austrian school system could be an important component for monitoring and improving the health and fitness of primary school children.

Although much is known about the impact of obesity on gait, not much is understood about how classes of obesity affect movement. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of weight classification on walking.
Sixty-seven women with normal BMI (n=13), overweight/Class I obesity (n=18), Class II obesity (n=16), and Class III obesity (n=20) participated. Gait parameters (velocity and percent of the gait cycle spent in swing and stance phases) were collected as participants walked on flat ground and crossed three obstacle heights.
Adults with normal BMI had faster velocities (F(3,63)=12.60, p=.000017), shorter portions of the gait cycle spent in stance (F(3,62)=7.29, p=.00029), and a larger percent of the gait cycle spent in swing than those with higher BMI scores (F(3,62)=5.43, p=.002). Adults with overweight/Class I obesity had faster velocities than those with Class III obesity (p=.000082, d=1.20) as well as less variable velocities than those with Class II (p=.002, d=-.40) and Class III (p=.01, d=-1.0) obesity. No differences in velocity were found between those with Class II and Class III obesity (p=.12, d=.57).
These results suggest the need to encourage adults to decrease overweight/Class I obesity but that an equally important goal is to prevent an increase in BMI leading to Class II obesity.

Sleep is considered a major factor related to children\'s general quality of life with regards to their health outcomes, general well-being, and daily life functions. Kid-KINDL, a health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measure, was used in a consecutive 12-week longitudinal study to compare the association between children\'s quality of life (QoL) and sleep duration across different BMI ranges. To reduce recall bias, each child wore an electronic pedometer on their wrist to record their sleep duration. The Pearson χ2 test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and mixed effect repeated measures analysis was used to investigate the association between children\'s QoL and their sleep duration. The original QoL scores showed that underweight children had lower emotional, family relationship, friendship, and school-related scores, and that overweight children had lower physical satisfaction and self-esteem scores. Emotional (beta = -0.3, p < 0.01) and family relationships (beta = 0.20, p = 0.01) significantly influenced the sleep duration of underweight children. The score of emotional well-being decreased by 0.3, while sleep duration increased by an hour. The poorer the emotional well-being of children, the longer they slept. The score of family well-being increased by 0.2, while sleep duration increased by an hour. The better family quality children had, the longer they slept; For overweight children, the score of family well-being increased by 0.08, while sleep duration increased by an hour (beta = 0.08, p = 0.04). Their sleep got longer when they had better family quality. Physical and school satisfaction scores also significantly affected the sleep duration of obese children. When the score of physical and school increased by 0.09, the sleep duration increases by an hour (beta = 0.09, p = 0.01; beta = 0.09, p < 0.01, respectively). The better the quality of physical condition and school life was, the longer sleep they would get. This study might be the first longitudinal study to evaluate the relationship between QoL and sleep duration, using an objective device but subjective questionnaires, across BMI ranges in a pediatric population.