The Judo is one of the most popular sports modalities in the world, activating all body segments, induce the increase of muscle strength, increase flexibility and balance and generates improvements of neurologic and psychologic aspects [1][2][3] . Moreover, the Judo can be practiced for children and adolescents 4 . However, few attention has been aimed to others age groups, although it would be interesting investigate the impact of long time martial arts training in the physical tness and health of subjects [5][6] . Although muscle strength is a physical capacity fundamental to obtain success in the modality 3 , ghters did not show high values when compared with no ghters in the peak of handgrip isometric strength (PHIS), but the ghters showed lower fatigue rate when there is sustenance of contraction for 10 seconds 7 . Furthermore, it is well know that the PHIS have a positive correlation with health parameters [8][9][10] . Among institutionalized elderly, for instance, it was observed that lower levels of PHIS become the elderly susceptible to falls 11 .On the other hand, it is well known that the Judo can contribute to the psychosocial development of the practitioners include with great development of character, respect, sincerity, courage and auto control 12 . e quality of life (QL), in turn, was object of study in Germans practitioners from di erent oriental martial arts, and it was observed that perception of QL was higher when compared to no practitioners, probably because the practice of martial arts it involves physical tness and social and spiritual aspects 13 . Between Brazilian elite athletes, it was observed that men shown di erent values compared to women regarding the personal belief domain 14 , however, more studies are necessary.us, the martial arts have been used to improve the level of physical activity of elderly as well as to improvement of physical tness and quality of life 6 .
AbstractThe aim of this study was to evaluate and test the correlation between isometric handgrip (IH), physical activity level (PA) and quality of life (QOL) of master judo competitors. The sample was composed by 44 men (45-64 years) participating in the Pan-American Master Judo Championships, 2011. To evaluate the handgrip strength was used isometric handgrip test. Additionally, were employed WHOQOL-Bref questionnaire and Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). In the statistical analysis, after checking the normal distribution of the data, they are presented as mean [95% confi dence interval]. In the comparison between age groups, we conducted analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey post-hoc. For bivariate correlations, we used the Pearson test. The judo athletes showed: 1) high amount of PA (661 min of moderate to vigorous PA) when considering the population recommendations; 2) moderate values of FIPM (bilateral sum equal to 87.1 [82.3 -91.9] kgf) compared with physically active people and the elderly; and 3) QOL scores higher than in other studies. Additionally, we highlight two main fi ndings, no signif...