It is well established in the literature that the morbidity and mortality rates due to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes in the U.S are alarmingly high. Likewise, there is ample data which demonstrates that participating in physical activity can help prevent and control many types of chronic diseases. Though the benefits outweigh the risks of participation in physical activity, the risks must be acknowledged. Published standards and guidelines in the health fitness field have been established to address operational practices of fitness facilities, increase safety of participants and mitigate these risks. The present study was a national investigation conducted to determine adherence to published standards and guidelines for self- and professionally-guided pre-activity health screening procedures (PHSP) across various settings (i.e., Hospital/Clinical, Community, Commercial, Corporate, University, Government). Additionally, this study obtained perspectives from study participants regarding familiarity with, importance of adherence to and legal liability associated with published standards and guidelines. As the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is considered the gold standard in health and fitness, only ACSM's published standards and guidelines, specifically those related to pre-activity health screening, were included in the present study. A survey instrument was developed and validated to obtain the data for this study. The link for the web-based survey was sent from the ACSM's Certification Department to all ACSM Health Fitness Specialists (HFS) who lived in the US (n=9,433); a total of 1,246 (13.2%) responded to the survey. The survey instrument consisted of 54 questions including 14 participant related (i.e., Q1, Q3, Q34-Q45), 32 facility related (i.e., Q2, Q4-Q33, Q46), seven demographic related (Q47-Q53), and one open-ended question (Q54). Exclusion criteria removed any HFS who was not currently working part- or full-time in a fitness facility, which left 677 usable responses for data analysis. Special measures were taken to remove duplicate responses for any given facility which resulted in a lower number of usable responses (n=656) for those 32 questions. As hypothesized, the Hospital/Clinical setting had significantly (p<.006) higher percentages of fitness facilities (93%) which require new participants to complete a pre-activity screening device than all other settings (i.e., University (56%), Community (54%), Commercial(40%), and Government (67%)). Additionally, the Hospital/Clinical setting was also found to be significantly higher than Corporate relative to this same variable. Regarding the second research hypothesis, the Corporate setting was found to have significantly (p<.006) higher percentages (78%) of fitness facilities which require new participants to complete a pre-activity screening device than the Community setting. Twenty-six percent of respondents indicated they their facility conducted self-guided, 43% professionally guided, and 31% offered both self- and professionally-guided PHSP. High percentages of fitness facilities (73%) required new participants to complete a pre-activity screening device with 47% and 87% of these facilities requiring medical clearance for at-risk new participants for self- and professionally-guided screening procedures, respectively. At-risk was defined in the study as someone with known disease (e.g., cardiac, pulmonary or metabolic) or with signs/symptoms and/or risk factors associated with cardiac, pulmonary, or metabolic disease. Also, participants with other medical conditions (e.g., pregnancy, orthopedic injury) may be considered at- risk. The majority (86%) of facilities offered personal training and nearly all of these (99.6%) required clients of personal trainers to complete a pre-activity screening device. Additionally, 84% of these facilities required medical clearance for at-risk clients. Data regarding other aspects of PHSP for facilities were also obtained such as frequency of completion for participants, privacy, confidentiality, and security of information obtained, participant refusal to complete, and waivers for guests. Regarding their familiarity, 69% of respondents indicated that they were very familiar with the ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription (ACSM's GETP); however only 52% indicated they used the ACSM's GETP for development and implementation of their facility's PHSP. Of these facilities, the results regarding the inclusion of the GETP criteria on their screening device were: (a) 96%, 91%, 87% for known CV, pulmonary and metabolic disease, respectively, (b) 44-95% for each of the nine signs/symptoms with dizziness/syncope the highest (95%) and intermittent claudication the lowest (44%), and (c) 64%- 99% for each of the nine CV risk factors with smoking the highest (99%) and high-density lipoprotein the lowest (64%). Although 52% of respondents reported more than adequate academic preparation, 70% reported being very confident in conducting professionally-guided pre-activity health screening procedures and that adherence to published standards and guidelines was very important. However, only 28% of respondents reported more than adequate academic preparation regarding legal implications involving PHSP. Other data from the HFSs regarding PHSP were also obtained such as their perspectives of the importance to management to adhere to and familiarity with published standards and guidelines as well as their knowledge of legal issues related to PHSP. In the open-ended question, respondents provided comments and challenges (n=509) that they encountered while conducting PHSP. These data were analyzed, coded and then categorized into three major themes: 1) medical clearance related issues, 2) administrative/procedural related issues, 3) member related issues. Compared to previous research, adherence to published standards and guidelines, as evidenced by the percentage of facilities which require new participants and clients of personal trainers to complete a pre-activity screening device, seems to be generally increasing. Additionally, relative to the requirement of medical clearance for personal training clients also seems to demonstrate an upward trend. However, the requirement of medical clearance for at-risk new participants remains about the same as previous studies (ranging from 49%-82% of the facilities) and the current study (47% for self-guided and 87% for professionally-guided). For facilities that were not conducting PHSP (27%), the major reasons why were reinforced by the comments to the open-ended question and were similar to those found in a previous study that investigated the same. The findings from this study indicated that there are areas that may need to be addressed within the profession to help increase adherence to published standards and guidelines especially in Community, Commercial, University, and Government settings. For example, these facilities might need a more simplified approach and additional guidance from the ACSM for more effectively and efficiently conducting PHSP. Additionally, academic programs could contribute by more comprehensively integrating PHSP into courses and practical learning opportunities for students. Given the importance of conducting PHSP, future research in PHSP focused on issues specific to individual settings may help establish the framework and provide direction for stakeholders to address this relevant issue in the field.

Title: Youth Sports Preparation Issues Objectives: The objective of the diploma thesis is to find out the intervention programme effectiveness using specific and semi-specific character exercises in relation to the enhancement of fitness training pre-conditions of the young football players belonging to the U 16 category. Methods: A group of players, who were subjected to testing, consisted of 12 players of younger junior category at the age of 16 years (year of birth 1997) who are playing younger junior league. This group was involved in a two-month process of intervention. The exercises were applied every day in both months during the main contest period. Before joining the intervention, players were subjected to entry tests, then, a two-month training cycle began. After that, the players underwent final tests which were exactly the same as the entry tests. Results: The section of the diploma thesis bringing tangible results involves their evaluation which is available in the submitted protocols. Final results are presented in a well arrange way in the form of charts and graphs followed by their evaluation. Conclusion: Direct influence on the speed and coordination abilities using specific and semi- specific exercises is an important constituent part of training units in any football match namely because...

Title: Assessment of fitness preparedness of floorball women Objectives: The main aim of this work is to find out and compare selected motor skills in sixteen women player of floorball team (Czech extraleague). Another goal is to evaluate the adequacy of the selected test battery for identifying fitness readiness in floorball players using Pearson correlation coefficient. Methods: The method of (pre)experiment in the form of an intervention program was used. The research was carried out in the form of testing according to a test battery, which included four types of tests: run 50 m, run 30 m backwards, crunches repeated, bench press max (maximum weight in the individuality of the player) and bench press repeated (50 % body weight). The measured performance values in the tests were then evaluated and compared with each other. Results: The players of the tested group showed a significant improvement in 3 tests out of 5 overall after passing the input and output measurements. These consisted of crunches tests repeatedly (improvement by 10,82 %), bench press max (improvement by 6,1 %) and bench press repeatedly (improvement by 9,73 %). On the other hand, in the 50 m run and the 30 m run backwards test, we see little improvement. The players achieved the most significant improvement in the crunches test...

В работе рассматриваются актуальные вопросы, связанные с проблемой избыточной массы тела у женщин среднего возраста. В основной части статьи представлена комплексная фитнес-программа в сочетании средств фитнеса и МФР, направленная на снижение избыточной массы тела у женщин среднего возраста. Анализ результатов исследования подтверждает гипотезу о том, что разработанная автором комплексная фитнес-программа с использованием МФР способствует более эффективному снижению избыточной массы тела у женщин среднего возраста. / The paper deals with topical issues related to the problem of overweight in middle-aged women. The main part of the article presents a comprehensive fitness program in combination of fitness and MFR, aimed at reducing overweight in middle-aged women. The analysis of the results of the study confirms the hypothesis that a comprehensive fitness program developed by the author using MFR contributes to a more effective reduction of excess body weight in middle-aged women.