In aiming movements the limb position drifts away from the defined target after some trials without visual feedback, a phenomenon defined as proprioceptive drift (PD). There are no studies investigating the association between the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and PD in aiming movements. Therefore, cathodal and sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) were applied to the left PPC concomitantly with the performance of movements with or without vision. Cathodal tDCS applied without vision produced a higher level of PD and higher rates of drift accumulation while it decreased peak velocity and maintained the number of error corrections, not affecting movement amplitude. The proprioceptive information seems to produce an effective reference to movement, but with PPC stimulation it causes a negative impact on position.

Body image represents the mental perception of body shapes and is a multifactorial structure that includes psychological, physical and emotional elements. The discrepancy between the subjective perception of body image and the desire for the ideal body type can interfere with the feeling of satisfaction and trigger the desire for changes in appearance, directly interfering with mental health and general well-being. Men and women may differ in body image satisfaction due to the different social influences and beauty standards imposed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the subjective perception of body image and satisfaction with body shapes among men and women. The sample consisted of 100 college students of both genders. Subjective perception of body image and satisfaction were measured through self-assessment, through scale figure silhouettes. There was a significant difference in the subjective perception of body image in the comparison between genders, and women presented greater discrepancy between the real and the perceived image. In the analysis of satisfaction with body image there were no differences between genders and both presented high percentage of dissatisfaction. In addition, 46.2% of men would like to decrease their body shapes, 53.8% would increase them. As for women, 76.1% would like to decrease their body dimensions and 23.9% to increase them. The strong pressures imposed by society and the standards set by the prevailing media in determining body image dissatisfaction or self-assessment negatively, regardless of gender.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of bench press exercise performed as conditioning activity on the shot put performance in untrained subjects. Methods: Twelve healthy men (26 ± 6 years; 1.8 ± 0.1 m; 73.5 ± 10.4 kg; 13.2 ± 5.2% body fat), with no experience in shot put, were randomly assigned into two conditions: 1) Control: subjects performed six shot put attempts, and 2) Bench press exercise: subjects performed six shot put attempts 7 min post 2 sets of 5 repetitions maximum (RM) of bench press exercise. A metal ball of 4 kg was used for shot put attempts, and subjects were instructed to perform each shot put according to the static shot put technique. Results: Shot put performance was greater after bench press condition when compared with control condition (8.2 ± 1.2 m vs. 7.8 ± 0.8 m, respectively, p < 0.05). In addition, eight out of 12 volunteers positively responded to the conditioning activity. Conclusion: The results suggest that bench press exercise performed as a conditioning activity improves shot put performance in untrained subjects. Moreover, the conditioning activity should be individually set.

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