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“A mental health game-changer” Embodied experiences of psychosocial, body image and wellbeing outcomes from strength and resistance training during perimenopause.
Get PDFObjectives: Resistance exercise facilitates healthy aging in women but is ostensibly promoted to improve physiological health in later life and reduce weight gain. However, the psychosocial outcomes of resistance training in midlife are often overlooked. Given the pervasive messages that exist in fitness culture around exercise and appearance, this study explores experiences of strength training in perimenopause that embody wellbeing, functionality, vasomotor symptoms, and sociocultural ideals of ageing.
Design: An online, qualitative survey was distributed via University webpages and social media, informed by relevant health, physical activity, and body image literature. Participants self-identified as individuals experiencing menopausal symptoms (inclusive of non-binary or trans) and confirmed engagement in regular strength training.
Method: Participants’ ages ranged from 35 to 60 years (n = 58, M = 48.03, SD = 5.61) with 98.3% identifying as a (cis-)woman, 82.8% as White British, and 46.6% strength training for three years or more. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to interpret patterns of shared meaning.
Results: Three themes were developed: 1) Empowerment in “feeling strong” and building muscle, 2) “A mental health game-changer”, and 3) Invisibility of the perimenopausal body. Strength training was understood as beneficial for improved mobility, yet many reported more subtle changes (e.g., improved mood) through the transition and welcomed a sense of focus and control. Evidence-based awareness of strength training in midlife was perceived to be lacking within medical guidance and physical activity spaces. Findings therefore offer nuanced insight into perimenopausal experiences that emphasise enhanced body image and wellbeing outcomes of strength training
The capacity of markerless motion capture to detect changes in gait kinematics at different speeds
Get PDFINTRODUCTION:
Markerless motion capture (MMC) is increasing in popularity among biomechanists because of the reduced data collection time and removal of subjects needing to wear tight, minimalist clothing [1]. However, gait analysis often requires subjects to walk or run at multiple speeds, such as in an incremental exercise test. The sensitivity of MMC to detect kinematic changes across speeds has yet to be thoroughly explored, so the aim of this study was to compare kinematic responses to changes in gait speed when measured with a widely used marker-based system versus a MMC system.
METHOD:
Fifteen healthy, adult participants walked on an instrumented treadmill (1,000 Hz; Gaitway3D; h/p/cosmos) at 3 and 5 km/h and ran at 10, 11, and 12 km/h. A 14-camera optoelectronic motion capture system (Oqus 7+, Qualisys) was used to collect marker data, where markers were placed according to Cappozzo et al. [2]. Markerless video data were collected synchronously with 12 high-speed video cameras (Miqus, Qualisys). Both systems were sampling at 100 Hz. Markerless data were exported to Theia3D for processing, before being exported to Visual3D for modelling alongside marker data. Gait events were determined using the kinetic data, which was the same for both motion capture systems. Kinematic data were exported to MATLAB to calculate changes in sagittal angular data between gait speeds.
RESULTS:
For walking (changes between 3-5 km/h), MMC demonstrated the capacity to measure similar changes in joint range of motion (ROM), peak flexion, and peak extension for hip, knee, and ankle joints (ICC[3,1] ≥ 0.892) when compared to marker-based data, and there were no significant differences between the change in joint kinematics between systems (p > 0.05). MMC also displayed moderate-to-excellent agreement for knee and ankle joint kinematics during running (changes between 10-11 and 11-12 km/h), including ROM and peak flexion/extension (ICC ≥ 0.626). However, the hip joint was less consistent, with poor-to-moderate agreement generally being found, especially in peak hip extension (ICC = 0.198 when comparing differences between 11-12 km/h). There were no significant differences between systems during running (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSION:
MMC was able to measure small changes in joint angles during walking at similar magnitudes to traditional marker-based motion capture, which is promising for clinical biomechanists and gait analysis clinics. However, MMC importantly performs less well when trying to measure joint angle changes during different running speeds, with varying results between lower limb joints. Researchers and practitioners should be cautious when interpreting sagittal-plane kinematic changes during running when employing MMC as the chosen method of motion capture.
REFERENCES:
[1] Kanko, RM et al. (2021) J Biomech;127:110665
[2] Cappozzo, A et al. (1995) Clin Biomech;10:171-
Co-producing a Mixed Methods Evaluation to Assess a Menopause Educational Intervention
No full textThis case study evaluates a community-based education program about menopause for women in a district in northern England. The main evaluation goal was to assess the programme’s impact. To achieve this, the researchers used a mixed methods approach, involving key stakeholders in the design process during online meetings, working to co-productive values throughout the evaluation. Data was collected through various means, including case studies, learning logs, questionnaires, and interviews with both professionals and course attendees (demographic forms n=55; pre and post course questionnaires n= 5; learning logs n=7; observations n=5; case study n=3; professional interviews n=11 and course attendee interviews n=7). The evaluation produced detailed and diverse data. University ethical approval was obtained. The case study focuses on the online mixed methods evaluation, highlighting the process, benefits, and challenges of remote co-production, through the application of our own reflexive analysis as researchers
Using Redundant Reads for Improving Performance and Availability of Distributed Replicated Systems with Relaxed Consistency
No full textDistributed NoSQL databases is a new time of data storages which offer configurable levels of consistency so that data can scale across many geographically distributed nodes. In order to achieve high system availability and allow a quick response the architects of modern large-scale web applications such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. often decide to weak consistency requirements. In this paper, we put forward the idea of using redundant read requests to further reduce response time and improve availability of replicated distributed systems operating at a relaxed consistency level. The proposed approach was implemented on a testbed Cassandra NoSQL cluster. Our evaluation results show that redundant reads can be considered as an effective means of reducing the probability of extreme delays that regularly occur in distributed systems. In some scenarios, the proposed mechanism can not only improve system availability and minimize the worst-case execution time, but also reduce the average response time despite the increase in system workload
ICOACHGIRLS: First Results and Insights
No full textICOACHGIRLS will aim to positively influence primary school age girls across these three domains and support them to become more physically active over the long term.
- Think - Cognitive - Knowledge & Understanding
- Do - Physical - Physical Competence
- Feel - Affective - Motivation & Confidenc
“If I were thirteen stone I’d be happier”: A narrative analysis of one woman’s story of decades of weight-cycling and dieting.
No full textWomen are disproportionately associated with the body and interpellated into discourses around the ‘slender ideal’. Many spend years ‘dieting’ to attain and maintain this ideal. Using a feminist-informed narrative psychological approach, this study explores how one woman makes sense of her weight-watching experiences within her life story and how she constructs and negotiates identities. The participant, recruited through a word-of-mouth strategy, is a British white, working-class 64-year-old woman, who shared her lifelong dieting journey through an unstructured interview. Narrative analysis revealed themes of fluctuating control over body weight, mirroring particular events in her life, and the tension between chasing the weight loss dream versus embracing bodily acceptance. Findings are discussed in relation to broader discourses and power structures, emphasising their intersection with the specificities of one woman’s life and the psychological toll of sustained weight consciousness. Merits of a life story and narrative approach are also highlighted
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