Background: Puerperium is the period of 6 weeks after parturition. It typically brings anatomical and psychical changes. Physical exercises especially developed for puerperas are supposed to help women deal with such changes. Purpose: The aim of this study is to find out whether puerperas have been educated on the importance of physical exercises during pregnancy and whether they actively perform the exercise and in what way. Methods: Data from puerperas were collected by a questionnaire method. The questionnaires were anonymous and were distributed via gynaecological clinics in Brno city (Czech Republic) and via websites intended for women. Results: The work presents a survey of 217 puerperas. 39.2% of women have stated that they perform the exercises intended for puerperal period, and the main source of information was reported as the Internet (43.5% of respondents). Most women do exercise 2-3 times per week (an answer given by 63.5% of respondents), and the time duration of their exercising unit is typically up to 30 minutes (51.8% of respondents). The majority of women (71.8%) do exercise at home, and 60.8% of respondents do not do exercise in puerperial period at all. Conclusions: Physical activity in puerperium brings many benefits for a woman, concerning the recovery process and faster return of the body to the condition prior to pregnancy, as well as enhances physical and mental well-being. As emerged from this work, not all women are properly informed on the aforementioned benefits, therefore a proper education would be highly advisable.

Lysozyme is one of the salivary antimicrobial proteins (AMP) which act as a defence at the mucosal surface. While in adult athletes, a decrease in salivary lysozyme (SLys) levels has been reported after prolonged intense training, to our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to study the relationship between SLys levels and long-term physical activity in children or teenagers.The aim of this preliminary study was mainly to evaluate in a group of adolescent male gymnasts undergoing prolonged intense training load whether - in accordance with studies in adult athletes - there will also be a decrease in SLys and if so, whether this phenomenon will be so common that we detect it in a small group of study participants.Twelve adolescent male gymnasts aged from 15.0 ± 1.6 years of national or international performance level were recruited to participate in this study. All participants of the study had their sample of saliva taken: I. Period) after the transitional period (rest), i.e. just before the beginning of the preparatory training period. II. Period) immediately after the end of the preparatory training period that was focused on maximal strength and power development. Preparatory training period lasting 6 weeks consisted of nine 2.5 hour training units (on average) over 6 days in every week. At the same time, three times per week two-a-day training sessions were incorporated. Intensity of the physical exercise was not determined.We found a significant decrease in SLys levels after the preparatory training period (termed as II. period) compared to its level just before the start of the training (i.e. after the rest, termed as I. period).The results of this preliminary study suggest that SLys measurements may be an indicator of prolonged training load in adolescent athletes. Although the intensity of the training load has not been determined, the national and international performance level of the gymnasts enrolled in the study allows at least a rough estimate of its level. However, with respect to some limitations of our study, larger studies on male and female adolescent athletes, applying relevant training load with monitoring of variables such as specific sports performance, physical fitness, nutrition, sleep quality, social and psychological factors, are desirable.

Purpose: Change of direction speed (CODS) and reactive agility (RAG) are important qual-ities in futsal, but studies rarely examined the predictors of these conditioning capacities in players of advanced level. This study aimed to evaluate predictive validity of certain an-thropometric and conditioning capacities in evaluation of futsal specific CODS and RAG in top-level players. Methods: The sample comprised 54 male players from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, members of teams competing at the highest national rank, including national champions for the 2017–2018 competitive season in both countries. The variables comprised set of pre-dictors (body mass, body height, triceps skinfold, reactive strength index [RSI], sprint 10 m [S10M], and broad jump [BJ]; and four criteria: futsal specific CODS and RAG, performed with and without dribbling (CODS_D, CODS_WD, RAG_D, RAG_WD). To identify the asso-ciation between variables Pearson’s correlation and multiple regressions were calculated. Results: Observed predictors explained statistically significant (p < 0.05) percentage of vari-ance for all four criteria (Rsq: 0.28, 0.30, 0.23 and 0.25, for CODS_WD, CODS_D, RAG_WD, RAG_D, respectively). Body mass was significant predictor for all criteria (Beta: 0.35–0.51), with poorer performances in heavier players. In both performances which involved dribbling, significant predictors was RSI (Beta: −0.27 and −0.31 for CODS_D and RAG_D, respective-ly), with superior performances in players with better RSI. The S10M and BJ were not identi-fied as being significantly correlated to studied RAG and CODS performances. Conclusion: Study confirmed specific influence of studied predictors of futsal specific CODS and RAG with consistent negative influence of body mass on studied performances. Almost certainly this can be explained by specifics of RAG and CODS execution. Specifically, tests are performed over relatively small distances, with several changes of direction, which clear-ly mimic the futsal specific performances. Although sprint performance is often observed as important determinant of CODS and RAG, herein we did not confirm its predictive validity in explanation of futsal specific CODS and RAG. Future studies should evaluate other poten-tially important predictors of these capacities in futsal.

Purpose: The main aim of our research was to determine the internal load of goalkeepers in the soccer training process. The internal load of goalkeepers during the training process is examined according to the achieved values of heart rate. Our goal was to expand the knowl-edge of the impact of different methodical forms on the goalkeepers’ internal load in soccer, thereby support the possibilities of improving their training process. The assumption was that the goalkeepers would achieve significantly different heart rate values in different methodical forms. Methods: The research group was formed by six elite youth soccer goalkeepers (n=6) from U16, U17 and U19 categories. In order to evaluate the heart rate was used the POLAR PRO heart rate monitor and the loading zones of goalkeepers were determined by using a pro-gram called POLAR Team2. Subsequently, the obtained data were evaluated by using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test and Cohen´s „r “(effect size). Results: The average difference in HRavg during preparatory exercise and small-sided game was 25 ± 9 beats.min-1, and the average difference in HRmax was 35 ± 12 beats.min-1. During preparatory exercise achieved the goalkeepers’ value of HRavg 134 ± 8 beats.min-1 and in small-sided game was HRavg 159 ± 8 beats.min-1. In individual methodical forms were found significantly different average heart rate values (z = -2.201, p < 0.05, r = 0.9), which statisti-cally and logically confirmed our assumption. Conclusion: Monitoring of soccer goalkeepers´ internal load in the process of training and improvement of game activities can greatly help the coaches in further planning, optimiza-tion and tracking of the training process. Based on our research´s results is recommended to monitor and evaluate the internal load intensity of goalkeepers using sporttesters during entire training process.

Overweight and obese children often suffer for many physiological and psychological is-sues. Resistance training allows them to excel over their peers due to strength ability which is related to their somatotype. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of an eight-week resistance training program on body composition in overweight and obese children. Study sample included 8 boys and 4 girls (age = 11.7 ± 1.54) who were involved in an eight-week strength specifically designed program consisted of two strength training unit per week. Resistance of exercise was set on 8‒10 RM. Body composition were measured by InBody 720 two times before and after the training intervention. The Wilcoxon matched pairs test was used. Results showed increase in total body weight (2.7%), lean body mass (2.5%) and fat mass (3.7%). This effect indicates that used resistance training program is suficient to lean body mass grow. Nevertheless, program proved to be inadequate to avoid an increase in fat mass. This could be caused by many factors which should be consider in further research (e.g. longer technique practice, diet, number of training units).