Ioannis Athanailidis

Moral Development and Form of Participation, Type of Sport, and Sport Experience:

The present study investigated aspects of moral development in sport, according to the form of participation, type of sport, and sport experience. 510 participants, 14 to 49 years of age (M = 24.9, SD = 8.3) who came from organized competitive sports included athletes (n = 327), referees (n = 138), and coaches (n = 45) in football (n = 161), handball (n = 198), and basketball (n = 150). Years of sport experience ranged from 1 to 6, 7 to 14, and 15 to 30 years of participation in sports. The Defining Issues Test was given; analysis showed no significant differences in development of moral reasoning among participants across different types of sports, forms of participation, and years of experience in sport.

Evidence of a Redox-Dependent Regulation of Immune Responses to Exercise-Induced Inflammation

We used thiol-based antioxidant supplementation (n-acetylcysteine, NAC) to determine whether immune mobilisation following skeletal muscle microtrauma induced by exercise is redox-sensitive in healthy humans. According to a two-trial, double-blind, crossover, repeated measures design, 10 young men received either placebo or NAC (20 mg/kg/day) immediately after a muscle-damaging exercise protocol (300 eccentric contractions) and for eight consecutive days. Blood sampling and performance assessments were performed before exercise, after exercise, and daily throughout recovery. NAC reduced the decline of reduced glutathione in erythrocytes and the increase of plasma protein carbonyls, serum TAC and erythrocyte oxidized glutathione, and TBARS and catalase activity during recovery thereby altering postexercise redox status. The rise of muscle damage and inflammatory markers (muscle strength, creatine kinase activity, CRP, proinflammatory cytokines, and adhesion molecules) was less pronounced in NAC during the first phase of recovery. The rise of leukocyte and neutrophil count was decreased by NAC after exercise. Results on immune cell subpopulations obtained by flow cytometry indicated that NAC ingestion reduced the exercise-induced rise of total macrophages, HLA+ macrophages, and 11B+ macrophages and abolished the exercise-induced upregulation of B lymphocytes. Natural killer cells declined only in PLA immediately after exercise. These results indicate that thiol-based antioxidant supplementation blunts immune cell mobilisation in response to exercise-induced inflammation suggesting that leukocyte mobilization may be under redox-dependent regulation.

The effects of static stretching on speed and agility: One or multiple repetition protocols?

Abstract Although static stretching (SS) is utilized during warm-up before training and competition, the results about its effects on performance remain controversial. We examined whether performing a stretch of short-to-moderate duration (<60 sec) in a single repetition produces a similar or different effect on speed and agility performance from the effect which is produced while performing the same stretch in multiple repetitions of the same total duration. According to a repeated measurement design, 40 trained males were randomly assigned to either (1) a single repetition group or (2) a multiple repetition group. The participants in each group performed five trials: a control trial (no stretches were performed) and four experimental trials of SS protocols consisting of five exercises performed at either 20 sec (2 × 10 in the second group), 30 sec (3 × 10 in the second group), 40 sec (4 × 10 in the second group) or 60 sec (6 × 10 in the second group) of total duration. A two-way repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the participants in both group improved their speed performance in response to the 20-sec trial, whereas agility remained unaffected. Data analysis also revealed that the repetition number did not affect speed and agility performance. These data suggest that SS of short duration (<30 sec) may actually improve acute speed performance, whereas SS of moderate duration may not hamper speed and agility performance. Moreover, the effects of SS protocols are related to the total duration of each exercise and not to the number of repetitions in which each exercise is performed.