ECSS Paris 2023: CP-MH14
INTRODUCTION: Whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) has been investigated as a strategy to intensify neuromuscular stimuli during exercise; however, its ability to potentiate adaptations when combined with bodyweight training protocols remains unclear. METHODS: Twenty-eight physically active men and women (27.07 ± 7.33 years; 80.68 ± 18.46 kg; 172.86 ± 10.1 cm; 24.4 ± 7.8% body fat) were randomly allocated into two groups: (1) Bodyweight training group (BW; exercises performed without electrical stimulation, n = 14), and (2) bodyweight training combined with whole-body electromyostimulation (BW+WB-EMS; exercises performed with WB-EMS, n = 14). Training sessions included a 1-minute warm-up followed by 12 bodyweight exercises performed in a circuit for two rounds, with 2 minutes of rest between rounds. Exercises included push-up, jumping jack, squat jump, TRX® elbow extension, mountain climber, close-grip TRX® row, burpee, lunge, TRX® elbow push-up, running in place, abdominal crunch, and skier jack. For BW+WB-EMS group, the WIEMSPRO® device (Málaga, Spain) was set to deliver bipolar current at 80 Hz, 500 ms ramp time, pulse width of 150 to 350 μs, and a duty cycle of 30 seconds of stimulation followed by 10 seconds of rest. The training intervention was performed twice per week for six weeks. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included push-up performance, 1-minute sit-up test, Yo-Yo test (VO₂max estimation), burpee test, and vastus lateralis muscle thickness (MTVL). Body fat percentage and BMI were assessed via tetrapolar bioimpedance (BI.A® – TeraScience, São José dos Campos, São Paulo). Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA with checks for normality, homogeneity, appropriate corrections, and effect size calculations (p ≤ 0.05). RESULTS: Both groups improved push-up performance (BW+WB-EMS: Δ = 17.6%, ES = 0.51, p = 0.0003; BW: Δ = 17.9%, ES = 0.36). Sit-up performance increased significantly in both groups, with greater improvement in BW+WB-EMS (Δ = 18.86%, ES = 0.91, p < 0.0001) compared to BW (Δ = 9.01%, ES = 0.39, p = 0.03). For the burpee test, BW+WB-EMS demonstrated superior gains (Δ = 39.46%, ES = 1.23, p = 0.002) compared to BW (Δ = 20.75%, ES = 0.51, p = 0.28). VO₂max improved only in BW+WB-EMS (Δ = 2.87%, ES = 0.43, p = 0.01), while BW showed no significant change (Δ = 0.76%, ES = 0.13, p = 0.94). Muscle thickness increased similarly in both groups (BW+WB-EMS: Δ = 3.02%, ES = 0.22, p = 0.03; BW: Δ = 3.11%, ES = 0.15, p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Six weeks of bodyweight training induced meaningful improvements in functional performance and modest morphological changes in physically active young adults. However, adding WB-EMS consistently produced larger effect sizes across most functional outcomes, indicating a greater magnitude of improvement, particularly in high-metabolic-demand tasks such as the burpee test, where gains were notably superior compared with bodyweight training alone. WB-EMS also elicited more pronounced improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness.
Read CV ALEXANDRE LOPES EVANGELISTAECSS Paris 2023: CP-MH14
INTRODUCTION: Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by challenges in social functioning and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Regular physical activity (PA) improves well-being of autistic children, but evidence for middle-aged and older autistic adults remains scarce. This study aimed to explore the association between the frequency of different PA types and sleep outcomes in autistic adults aged 40 to 70 years. METHODS: We analyzed baseline data from 408 autistic individuals diagnosed by professional institutions, sourced from the UK Biobank database. Participants were categorized based on their self-reported frequency of moderate-intensity PA (MPA), vigorous-intensity PA (VPA), and walking. "Regular" activity was defined as engaging in the respective activity three or more times per week for at least 10 minutes per session, as defined within the UK Biobank. Accordingly, participants were grouped as follows: regular MPA (n=231) vs. irregular MPA (≤2 times/week, n=167); regular VPA (n=134) vs. irregular VPA (n=274); regular walking (n=337) vs. irregular walking (n=71). Sleep quality was accessed by UKB’s questionnaire on sleep at baseline, which were (1) UKB sleep duration, (2) Chronotype, (3) Sleeplessness/insomnia, (4) Snoring, and (5) Daytime dozing / sleeping. We used healthy sleep score calculations of Fan and colleagues [1] that is based on five sleep questions specified above. Multivariable logistic regression models were employed to assess the associations between irregular PA and each sleep item as well as healthy sleep score (low, middle, and high) adjusting for age, sex, education, and family income. RESULTS: Compared to the regular VPA group, the irregular VPA group had significantly higher rates of insomnia report (87.8% vs. 72.5%, p=0.038). The irregular walking group reported lower rates of adequate sleep duration (7-8 hours, 45.5% vs. 64.4%, p=0.001), early chronotype (27.3% vs. 49.0%, p=0.001), higher rates of daytime sleepiness (37.9% vs. 23.7%, p=0.017), and lower rates of good sleep quality (8,6% vs. 26.4%, p=0.005). After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, irregular VPA remained significantly associated with higher rates of insomnia (OR=1.73, 95% CI: 1.03-2.91), irregular walking was associated with higher rates of inadequate sleep duration (OR=2.50, 95%CI: 1.43-4.36), night chronotype (OR=2.56, 95%CI: 1.39-3.52), daytime sleepiness (OR=1.95, 95%CI: 1.10-3.49), and higher rates of poor sleep quality (OR=4.04, 95%CI: 1.50-10.90). CONCLUSION: Among autistic adults aged 40-70 years, irregular participation in PA, particularly vigorous exercise and walking, is associated with poorer sleep quality, including sleep duration, insomnia, night chronotype and daytime sleepiness. The findings emphasized the sleep benefits associated with consistent mild PA such as walking in this population. Promoting regular PA could be a valuable strategy in public health initiatives aimed at improving the well-being of autistic adults. [1] Fan, M., et al.,Eur Heart J, 2020
Read CV Xiaohui HouECSS Paris 2023: CP-MH14
INTRODUCTION: Mental fatigue (MF) arises from sustained cognitive load and manifests as a multisystem state encompassing subjective experience, behavioral regulation, cortical oscillatory activity, and oculomotor dynamics (Schampheleer et al., 2025). While moderate aerobic exercise (EXO) is known to facilitate recovery from MF (Oberste et al., 2021), its capacity to shape the emergence and expression of MF when performed prior to prolonged cognitive effort remains unexplored. This study aimed to provide a fine-grained multimodal and temporal characterization of MF, assess its impact on declarative memory and creative cognition, and determine whether prior EXO modulates these effects. METHODS: Twenty-nine healthy adults completed either 15 min of EXO or a resting control condition (REST) before performing a 35-min Time Load Dual Back task designed to induce MF. Subjective fatigue and perceived effort, behavioral performance, electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, and eye-blink rate were continuously monitored throughout task execution. Declarative memory and divergent creativity were assessed before the intervention and immediately after MF induction. RESULTS: In both groups, subjective MF and perceived effort increased early during task performance (from the first assessment at 7 min), while accuracy and response times remained stable, indicating sustained behavioral compensation. MF was characterized by a progressive increase in parieto-central alpha power emerging around 18 min, reflecting growing cognitive load. Prior EXO did not attenuate subjective MF nor alter behavioral stability or alpha dynamics. However, EXO selectively modulated neurophysiological and oculomotor markers, with consistently higher frontal-medial theta power and stable blink rates, whereas blink rate increased later in REST (≈21 min). Declarative memory performance was preserved in both groups. In contrast, creative flexibility increased after MF in REST but not in EXO, suggesting MF-related disinhibition in the former and preserved inhibitory control following EXO. CONCLUSION: These findings delineate a coherent temporal cascade of MF across subjective, neural, and oculomotor domains, even in the absence of overt performance decline. Acute moderate exercise performed beforehand does not prevent MF but selectively reshapes its neurophysiological expression and downstream cognitive effects. By refining the temporal and multimodal signature of MF, this work underscores the importance of exercise timing and task demands for designing targeted interventions to mitigate cognitive fatigue.
Read CV Ursula DebarnotECSS Paris 2023: CP-MH14