The aim of this paper is to present the latest scientific data related to a gluten-free diet, the justification of the introduction of a diet, the advantages and disadvantages of this dietary approach in the population of athletes. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity, previously defined as gluten sensitivity, is a relatively new clinical entity first defined in 2011. This disorder is characterized by intestinal symptoms (abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation) and extra intestinal symptoms such as headache, chronic fatigue, impaired concentration or “brain fog”, numbness and muscle or bone pain are frequently reported. Since most of the symptoms are subjective without accompanying clinical signs, and since no specific biomarker for diagnostics exists in clinical practice, there is always a dilemma whether this is really a health problem. A gluten-free diet has become popular among athletes due to the opinion that it has ergogenic effects. It should also be borne in mind that the introduction of a gluten-free diet has its drawbacks. Several studies suggest that a gluten-free diet is deficient in whole grains, dietary fiber, micronutrients and minerals. The data collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey study indicate the existence of higher concentrations of heavy metals in urine and blood samples taken from people following a gluten-free diet as a result of narrowed food choices. These data remind us to keep in mind the justification of the introduction of a gluten-free diet and the potential damage to health when observed adherence to this pattern of nutrition in the long run.

The aim of this research is to determine the effects of a ten-week modern and recreational dance exercise program and trunk and leg muscle strengthening exercises on the coordination and explosive power of student-age female dancers. The total number of participants was 54, of which 27 made up the experimental group who participated in an experimental exercise program and 27 the control group. The experimental group performed Hip Hop and Dancehall dances and trunk and leg muscle strengthening exercises 3 times a week for 90 min each. The control group had no additional forms of exercise other than regular daily activities. The coordination of the participants was evaluated on the basis of six tests (Side Steps, 20 Steps forward Twirling a Baton, Skipping the Horizontal Jump Rope, Turning in 6 squares, Hand-Foot Drumming and Agility test with a Baton) and two tests for determining explosive power parameters (the squat jump and countermovement jump). Results showed statistical significance between the groups in 5 variables of coordination at the multivariate and univariate level (p<.05, p<.01), and in both variables of explosive power at the univariate level (p<.05). A large and intermediate effect size of the experimental program was determined for 5 variables of coordination, and intermediate effect size for both variables of explosive power. The results of this study showed that a ten-week exercise program for recreational and modern dance and exercises for strengthening the muscles of the torso and legs have a positive effect on the changes in the parameters of coordination and explosive power in student-age female dancers.

The aim of this research is to determine the effects of a ten-week modern and recreational dance exercise program and trunk and leg muscle strengthening exercises on the coordination and explosive power of student-age female dancers. The total number of participants was 54, of which 27 made up the experimental group who participated in an experimental exercise program and 27 the control group. The experimental group performed Hip Hop and Dancehall dances and trunk and leg muscle strengthening exercises 3 times a week for 90 min each. The control group had no additional forms of exercise other than regular daily activities. The coordination of the participants was evaluated on the basis of six tests (Side Steps, 20 Steps forward Twirling a Baton, Skipping the Horizontal Jump Rope, Turning in 6 squares, Hand-Foot Drumming and Agility test with a Baton) and two tests for determining explosive power parameters (the squat jump and countermovement jump). Results showed statistical significance between the groups in 5 variables of coordination at the multivariate and univariate level (p<.05, p<.01), and in both variables of explosive power at the univariate level (p<.05). A large and intermediate effect size of the experimental program was determined for 5 variables of coordination, and intermediate effect size for both variables of explosive power. The results of this study showed that a ten-week exercise program for recreational and modern dance and exercises for strengthening the muscles of the torso and legs have a positive effect on the changes in the parameters of coordination and explosive power in student-age female dancers.

The aim of this research was to determine the connection between the level of physical activity and body composition among school-age children. The sample of participants included 479 students, 250 boys and 229 girls, school-age children, with an average age of 12,5±1,08. Their level of physical activity was evaluated using the FELS PAQ questionnaire, while their body composition was evaluated using the BIA method. To determine a connection between the group of predictor variables and the criterion variables, a canonical correlation analysis was used. The obtained results indicated that there is a positive correlation between the level of physical activity and the parameters of body composition, both for the sample of school-age boys (p= .002), and the sample of girls (p= .048). It could be concluded that the participants who were physically more active scored lower values for Body Fat and BMI, that is, higher values for Muscle Mass and Lean Body Mass.

This research was conducted with the purpose of determining to what extent and how the dance program affects  the pre-school children coordination. The sample comprised 65 children of pre-school age (the control group consisted of 31 children, experimental of 34 children), aged 6 years ± 6 months. The experimental group performed dance activities over a period of 8 weeks (2X35 minutes each week). The control group performed regular activities in the kindergarten. The level of coordination in children was determined applying BOT-2 test battery (the Bruininks-Oseretsky test of Motor Proficiency). By analyzing the obtained research results, it was found a statistically significant difference between the dance and the control group in three variables: Jumping Jacks (0.000), Jumping in place-same sides synchronized (0.012) and Tapping feet and fingers- opposite sides synchronized (0.011), respectively. Statistically significant differences between the groups indicate the positive effect of the applied dance program on the development of motor coordination in pre-school children using an experimental dance program for twelve weeks. Dance program influences the coordination of the pre-school age children. The results showed that children participating in the dance program achieved better results in investigated bilateral coordination in three variables, thus recommending its application in the regular preschool children curriculum.

Recreational football has been shown to be an effective health-promoting activity, but it is still unclear how changes in game formats affect external and internal load. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the effect of area per player in recreational small-sided football games. Ten recreational active male football participants (mean±standard deviation, age: 20.1±1.1 years; height: 182.2±7.4 cm; body mass: 75.9±9.8 kg) completed two sessions comprising 2x20 min of 5v5 football with 80 and 60 m2 per player, during which heart rate (HR) and movement pattern were measured. In 80 m2, mean HR (167±9 vs. 160±10 b.p.m., P<0.001, ES=0.70) and peak HR (192±8 vs. 188±9 b.p.m., P=0.041, ES=0.50) were significantly higher than in 60 m2. Percentage playing time with HR >90%HRpeak was higher in 80 m2 than 60 m2 (45±14 vs. 29±16%, P=0.004, ES=1.07). Moreover, a higher number of sprints (8.0±4.8 vs. 3.0±1.3, P=0.014, ES=1.41) and a greater distance in the highest speed zones (>13, >16 and >20 km·h1) were covered in 80 m2 than 60 m2. Peak running speed was also higher in 80 m2 (24.3±1.7 vs. 22.3±1.4 km·h-1, P=0.011, ES=1.27), whereas no statistically significant differences were found in total distance covered, player load, or the acceleration-deceleration profiles. In conclusion, the internal and external loading was higher for recreationally active male football players when playing on a pitch with 80 m2 area per player compared to 60 m2.

The aim of the paper was to analyze tourist participation in animation programs during daily recreational activities within package tours which included apartment accommodation in Greece, i.e. whether there are differences between male and female participation rate in certain activities. Indirectly, based on the obtained results, it is necessary to establish whether animation programs should be conducted jointly and/or they should be planned and conducted separately for men and women. Another aim was to determine whether any differences occurred in animation programs during multiannual monitoring.

This research was conducted with the purpose of determining to what extent and how a dance program affects the pre-school children’s coordination. The sample comprised 65 children of a pre-school age (the control group consisted of 31 children, the experimental of 34 children), aged 6 years ± 6 months. The experimental group performed dance activities over a period of 8 weeks (2X35 minutes each week). The control group performed regular activities in the kindergarten. The level of coordination in children was determined applying a BOT-2 test battery (the Bruininks-Oseretsky test of Motor Proficiency). By analyzing the obtained research results, a statistically significant difference was found between the dance and the control group in three variables: Jumping Jacks (0.000), Jumping in place same sides synchronized (0.012) and Tapping feet and fingers opposite sides synchronized (0.011), respectively. Statistically significant differences between the groups indicate the positive effect of the applied dance program on the development of motor coordination in pre-school children using an experimental dance program for twelve weeks. The dance program influences the coordination of pre-school age children. The results showed that children participating in the dance program achieved better results in the studied bilateral coordination in three variables, thus recommending its application in the regular preschool curriculum.

The research was carried out on a sample consisting of the members of the Special Brigade of the Serbian Armed Forces, members of the 63rd Parachute Battalion. A total of 100 participants took part in the study, of an average age of  30±0,5 yrs. The subject matter of this paper are their body composition and specific fitness abilities. The aim of the paper was to determine the correlation between body composition and specific fitness abilities, as well as to determine the cross-correlation between the parameters of body composition and specific fitness abilities. A canonical correlation analysis was used to determine the connection between the set of predictor variables and the criterion variable. Based on the obtained results it could be concluded that there is a significant correlation (p= .010) between body composition and fitness abilities. It can be concluded that the excess of fat tissue (BF%, BFkg, index visceral BF) and BMI have a negative effect on fitness, while a greater amount of muscle mass (MM% and MMkg) has a positive influence on fitness. The results indicate that participants who do not have as many layers of fat have better values for repetitive power of the abdominal muscles, and that the percentage of muscle mass has a positive effect on the repetitive power of the pectoral muscles, muscles of the arms and abdomen.

The aim of this research was to determine the relations of fitness parameters and morphological characteristics of seven-year-old obese children. The sample of participants consisted of 103 obese children (63 girls and 40 boys), first grade students (mean age 7.04 years) of elementary schools in Nis. The following fitness parameters were measured: HR in load, VO2max (ml), HR in peace, bend forward - bend backward - throw test, hand taping, 20m dash with a standing start, Abalakov test and forward bend on the bench test. Morphological characteristics were determined by measuring 13 parameters of longitudinal and transversal dimensions of skeleton, volume and body mass, as well as subcutaneous fat tissue. Canonical correlation analysis was used to determine the relations between the set of variables representing fitness parameters and the set of variables of morphological characteristics. Based on the coefficients of canonical correlation analysis, it can be concluded that the spaces of morphological characteristics and fitness parameters are interconnected with two pairs of statistically significant canonical factors (p˂.05 and p˂.01). The general analysis of the relationships between the first pair of canonical factors suggests that subjects with higher circular dimensionalities of the body, accentuated adiposity and body mass tend to have poorer results in motoring tasks requiring body flexibility, explosive leg strength and running speed, and also have poorer results in the parameters of cardiorespiratory fitness. It can be concluded that obesity in young school age has negative implications on the fitness parameters in children, and therefore on their overall growth and development.

Skiing and snowboarding are high risk activities. As such, a high speed can be achieved in both, which can be very dangerous, and increasing affinities of skiers and boarders to perform acrobatic elements lead to additional increase in risk and a direct impact on the increase in the number of injuries. In spite of the more advanced protective equipment intended for skiers and snowborders, the number of injuries in competitive and recreational skiing remains at a high level. Brain and spinal cord injuries have become more frequent and therefore there is a need for participants, organizations and workers in ski resorts to become more aware of the risks and dangers of this sport. The subject of this research is injuries caused during the skiing and snowboarding in the ski center Kopaonik in the season 2016/2017. The aim of the research was to perform analysis of all injuries which occurred in the 2016/2017 season in the ski center Kopaonik using the data from the "List of injuries". The connection of the type of injury, the location of the injury, the use of protective equipment and meteorological conditions has also been established. The instrument used to collect information about the characteristics of the respondents and the characteristics of the injuries they experienced at the ski center Kopaonik was the official "Rescue Action Report" used by the Mountain Rescue Service at the ski resort of Kopaonik, and filled in every time they went to the scene of the accident. The obtained results were processed in the statistical package IBM SPSS 21. On the basis of the obtained results, it was found that skiers often experience knee injuries, while in the case of snowboarders, the most common are arm and shoulder injuries. When it comes to the place where the injury occurred, most of the injured persons were injured on a well-arranged ski trail. It is also important to state that, at the moment of an accident, a larger number of injured boarders wore a helmet than the number of injured skiers did. When it comes to the meteorological conditions in which the injuries occurred, the greatest number of injuries occurred in sunny conditions. It was found that injuries are most commonly caused in the second half of the skiing day, or after 1PM. On the basis of the obtained data it is possible to give recommendations to skiers and snowboarders in order to prevent and reduce injuries.

Background A previous meta-analysis showed that maximal oxygen uptake increased by 3.51 mL/kg/min (95% CI 3.07 to 4.15) during a recreational football programme of 3–6 months in comparison with continuous moderate-intensity running, strength training or a passive control group. In addition, narrative reviews have demonstrated beneficial effects of recreational football on physical fitness and health status. Objective The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the magnitude of effects of recreational football on blood pressure, body composition, lipid profile and muscular fitness with reference to age, gender and health status. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources MEDLINE, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Google Scholar were searched prior to 1 February 2017. In addition, Google Scholar alerts were set up in January 2012 to identify potential papers with the following key terms: recreational football, recreational soccer, street football and street soccer. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Randomised and matched controlled trials with participants allocated to a recreational football group or any other type of exercises or passive control group were included. Training programmes had to last at least 2 weeks to meet the inclusion criteria. The primary outcome measures were blood pressure, resting heart rate, body composition, muscular fitness, and blood lipids and glucose tolerance. A total of 31 papers met the inclusion criteria and were included. Results The effect of recreational football on systolic blood pressure (SBP) versus no-exercise controls was most likely extremely largely beneficial (effect size (ES)=4.20 mm Hg; 95% CI 1.87 to 6.53). In addition, a most likely very large beneficial (ES=3.89 mm Hg; 95% CI 2.33 to 5.44) effect was observed for diastolic blood pressure (DBP), when compared with non-active groups. Furthermore, a most likely extremely large beneficial effect was shown for SBP and DBP in participants with mild hypertension (11 and 7 mm Hg decrease, respectively) and participants with prehypertension (10 and 7 mm Hg decrease, respectively). Meta-analysis of recreational football determined the impact on resting heart rate as most likely extremely largely beneficial (ES=6.03 beats/min; 95% CI 4.43 to 7.64) when compared with non-active groups. The observed recreational football effect on fat mass was most likely largely beneficial (ES=1.72 kg; 95% CI 0.86 to 2.58) and the effect on countermovement jump (CMJ) performance was most likely very largely beneficial (ES=2.27 cm; 95% CI 1.29 to 3.25) when compared with non-active groups. Possibly beneficial decreases were found in low-density lipoprotein levels (ES=0.21 mmol/L; 95% CI 0.06 to 0.36). Possibly largely beneficial effect was observed for DBP in comparison with continuous running training. Small harmful and unclear results were noted for SBP, fat and lean body mass, body mass index, as well as muscular fitness when compared with running and Zumba training. Conclusion The present meta-analysis demonstrated multiple broad-spectrum benefits of recreational football on health-related physical fitness compared with no-exercise controls, including improvements in blood pressure, resting heart rate, fat mass, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and CMJ performance. Additionally, recreational football is efficient and effective as Zumba and continuous running exercise regimens with highlighted social, motivational and competitive components.

The aim of this paper was to determine the influence of certain anthropometric parameters on the results in lead climbing among female (N=15) and male (N=15) senior level climbers in 10 clubs from Serbia. To evaluate the anthropometric parameters the following measurements were taken: body height, arm length, leg length, hand length, hand span and arm span. The results in lead climbing were represented by the highest difficulty grade of a climb achieved during testing. A regression analysis was used to confirm that there was no statistically significant influence of the anthropometric parameters on the results in lead climbing among male and female climbers at the multivariate level, as well as on all the applied variables among the female climbers at the univariate level. However, the significance of individual regression coefficients of the variables of body height, hand length, hand span and arm span indicate that during selection of young competitors it would be worthwhile to take these anthropometric parameters into consideration (smaller body height and hand length, and a wider hand span and arm span). In addition, research is needed into whether there are any significant relations between the parameters of hand length and hand span and the strength of the hand grip and relative strength of the hand grip among sport climbers.

Alpine skiing is an activity that is usually a combination of low and high intensity, and can be of different duration (Turnbull et al., 2009). According to some researchers, the intensity level observed at the heart rate can range from 60% to 80% of the maximum heart rate (Seifert et al., 2009). The skiing load depends on many factors, and in particular the snow conditions, the level of knowledge of the skier, the inclination of the terrain, duration, weather conditions, skiing days or skiing style (Scheiber et al., 2009 ; Seifert et al., 2009). During skiing the energy consumption also depends on these factors, as well as on the body weight and the intensity of skiing (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2010). The main aim of the research was to determine the differences in load levels and energy consumption among skiers of different levels of skiing skills. The sample consisted of a total of 18 participants, out of which 9 participants comprised a group of skiers with high skiing skills (IVSS lincence - average age 34.7 ± 8.1 years, body height 179.6 ± 6.7cm, body weight 77.5 ± 9.3kg and BMI 24.0 ± 2.4 kg/m2) and 9 subjects with a beginners skiing knowledge level (average age 23.0 ± 2.1 years, body height 180.0 ± 4.9 cm, body weight 82.0 ± 3.3 kg and BMI 25.3 ± 1.5 kg/m2). Garmin Forerunner 310xt was used to determine intensity and calorie consumption. The following data were used for statistical data processing: total caloric consumption (KCal), relative calorie consumption (Kcal / kg), average heart rate (HRaverage), maximum heart rate (HRmax), relative HRaverage values and relative values HRmax (Rel. HRmax) expressed in percents (%). The average skiing time for both groups was 280 minutes, and the distance covered was 30km. T- test was used to calculate differences between groups. The level of significance was defined as 0.05. The results were processed in the statistical package STATISTICA 7.0 (StatSoft. Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA). The results showed that the load in both groups of subjects was on average 72.5% HRmax for a group with high skiing skills, or 75.6% of HRmax in the group of beginner skiers, which is in line with previous studies (Muller et al., 2011 ; Seifert et al. al., 2009 ; Scheiber et al., 2009). Statistically significant differences (p˂ .05) between groups in HRaverage, HRmax, and KCal were noted, with the notation that higher values were recorded for a group of skiers of beginners level (94.6 vs 109.6 beat • min-1 ; 134.26 vs 109.6 beat • min-191 ; 1448.4 vs 1869.5 Kcal). The obtained values were lower than in previous studies (Stoggl et al., 2016). Generally, it can be concluded that the level of skiing knowledge significantly affects the load and calorie consumption during skiing.

ABSTRACT Background: Autonomic dysfunction is an emerging non-traditional cardiovascular risk factor that correlates with obesity, components of metabolic syndrome, as well as cardiorespiratory fitness. As a simple and validated index of autonomic balance, heart rate recovery (HRR) has been reported as a useful biomarker for predicting cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare HRR in metabolically healthy vs. metabolically unhealthy obese children. Methods: A total of 56 obese children of whom 31 had metabolic syndrome were examined. All the participants underwent the multistage submaximal cycle ergometer test and HRR was determined one minute after the test. Results: The HRR was significantly lower (18.9 ± 3.7) in a group of metabolically unhealthy obese children compared to metabolically healthy obese children (24 ± 4.1) p < 0.001. Logistic regression analysis showed that reduction in HRR was also influenced by higher BMI. Conclusion: Our findings implicate the presence of the autonomic dysfunction as reflected by impaired heart rate recovery (HRR) in obese children with metabolic syndrome.