Doctoral Theses / Doktorsavhandlingar Institutionen för kost- och idrottsvetenskap

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://gupea-staging.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/22409

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 30

Nordic stakeholders and sustainable catering
(2011-02-03) Post, Anna
Sustainability deficits in modern food systems are widely reported and changes in food habits towards more sustainable eating patterns, including eating seasonal and locally produced food, have been suggested to minimise the environmental impact of food consumption and production. By means of national programmes and recommendations, the Nordic countries have taken the initiative for public catering to use local, organic and seasonal food in an attempt to create a healthier and more sustainable catering sector. But the problem is obvious, that sustainability action is not prioritised or sufficiently implemented everywhere and although the ‘eating out phenomenon’ is increasing every year, very little research has focused on sustainability action in the catering sector. The overall aim of this thesis is to analyse and discuss crucial factors for progress in sustainable catering as well as to establish a systems approach in research on food systems. Based on system thinking analysis of a Swedish survey and telephone interviews with stakeholders in the Nordic countries, crucial factors for sustainable catering can be linked to insufficient communication, ideological dilemmas due to conflicting messages but also to language deficiencies between stakeholders and other actors in the food system. System thinking would make it easier to make visible different stakeholders’ views concerning sustainable catering but also to better understand the whole picture. Stakeholders such as professional food purchasers and procurers are important in the process but do not have the tools to handle the conflicting message between economical and environmental directives. Knowledge of how the concept of sustainable development is constructed will facilitate work on achieving sustainable catering.
Ungdomars matval – erfarenheter, visioner och miljöargument i eget hushåll
(2012-05-28) Parinder, Ann
The aim of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of how young people, who have recently formed their own household, reason about and present their food choices. The study sheds light on the process the young people become a part of when food choices are made and food habits established. Additionally, light is shed on young people’s reasoning about their choices of food, their previous experiences and how they envision the future. The starting point has been how the young people present their food choices in relation to ethical standpoints, particularly with respect to the environment and climate. A central interest of the thesis has been to study young people’s households from a Home Economics perspective. In order to analyse and shed light on young people’s considerations and individual reflections when facing different choices, Archer’s (2003, 2007) “internal conversation” has been used. The empirical material, which comes from a 3-year study, included 51 young people who were studying, 19 of whom participated during all three years. The young people were aged 15 to 23 and had recently formed their own household. The methods used during the fieldwork included questionnaires, written reflections and participant observations as well as individual and group conversations. In addition, 23 young people photo documented their choices of food during a period of one week. The conversations were based on a guide where the young people’s perspective on the choice of food was central. The empirical material provided the prerequisites for the subsequent analysis. The results show that when the young people formed their own household, previously self-evident norms were questioned, opportunities for acquiring new standpoints arose and alternatives in the everyday food choices were found. Ethical, sensory, economical, health-related, social and knowledge-related aspects influenced in different ways the food choices. Daily routines and rituals were created and considerations concerning ethics, taste, social activities, time aspects and a desire to change the food repertoire influenced the choices. The results show clearly how the young people acted in several food arenas and navigated in order to create a functioning everyday life. Usually, ethical standpoints regarding the environment and climate varied and were taken more or less into account when choosing food. All felt that environmentally and climate friendly food choices were important and that in the future, it would be necessary to take this into account when choosing food. In conclusion, the study shows that when young people moved from a familiar life to their own household where they have to take responsibility and where habits and routines are established, they are open to change and to outside influences. Furthermore, they strive for a normative and pragmatic organisation of their food choices.
Nutrition in Olympic Combat Sports. Elite athletes’ dietary intake, hydration status and experiences of weight regulation
(2013-03-22) Pettersson, Stefan
There are a number of sports in which competition is conducted with weight limits or weight classes. In one-on-one combative sport, such rules are enforced to create an equal playing level and minimize the risk of injury between opponents. The prevailing attitude among competitive combat sports athletes is that a performance advantage will be gained by rapidly losing weight thus competing against a lighter and smaller opponent. However, rapid weight loss by voluntary dehydration can have implications for health and performance. The aim of this thesis is to improve the understanding of weight-regulation practices of elite combat sports athletes. This is investigated by means of interviews emphasising on Swedish national team athletes’ (n=14) perceptions and experiences of the phenomenon, and by cross sectional data (n=68) on hydration status and dietary intake collected at six different competitions in the 4 Olympic combat sports of wrestling, taekwondo, judo, and boxing. The qualitative research demonstrated that athletes practice weight regulation not only to gain a physical advantage over opponents but also for purposes of identity, mental advantage, and mental diversion. However, negative experiences including physiological needs and opposing ideals related to dietary- and weight-making practices were also displayed. The dietary and weight conflicts were most prominent close to competition. The hydration status measured at the morning of competition day demonstrated that almost half of the participants were categorized as seriously hypohydrated despite high water intake. Time for recovery was not significantly related to hydration status but athletes with shorter recovery time tended to be seriously hypohydrated to a greater extent than athletes competing under rules allowing for extended recovery time. Furthermore, a large proportion of the participants consumed a diet below current sport nutrition recovery guidelines regarding energy-yielding macronutrients. The main findings of this work demonstrate that weight regulation in combat sports is practiced in such a magnitude and intensity that it brings about negative physical and psychological consequences. Stricter weigh-in regulations might hinder rapid weight-loss practises but such actions will not solve the problem entirely. To manage stricter rules, nutritional counselling might be of further importance. Moreover, the mental benefits currently ascribed to weight regulation should be considered.
Sport Has Never Been Modern
(2013-04-15) Jonasson, Kalle
Sport has often been understood as a set of formalised physical contests, and moreover as something inherently modern. New conceptions of the term implicates that sport ought to comprise all physical activity. However, the studies and approaches that describe the range and tension between those positions are lacking. The thesis addresses this lacuna and suggests that the aforementioned conceptions could be inquired as the narrow (physical contest) and the broad (physical activity) understanding of sport. The work presented in this thesis sets out to outline a theoretical and methodological framework that could comprise the different conceptions of sport. This framework is laid out with inspiration from Bruno Latour’s symmetrical anthropology. The empirical material was collected from an array of sources with a broad range of ethnographical methods. Four sporting practices (break time football, parkour, eSport, and company table tennis) that embody the tension between the broad and the narrow are inquired into in the articles. The comprehensive framework that the thesis seeks to outline takes form in shape of the different concepts (“dromography,” “minor sport,” and “the art of tracing”) constructed within the articles. It is concluded that the broad understanding of sport threatens to hollow the term. However, the narrow understanding of sport tends to downplay the material dimension of modernity. It is argued that the connection between the material and the social dimension of sport, with regards to categories such as age and gender, mustn’t be neglected in the study of sport. Furthermore, it is argued that the competitive element of modern sport is related to modern science in an unexpected way that adds new understanding to the ontology of modernity in general.
Television and food in the lives of young children
(2014-03-13) Olafsdottir, Steingerdur
Several mechanisms have been proposed behind the associations between screens and overweight including sedentary behaviour, eating while viewing, and exposure to commercials. Aspects of this association as underlying social factors and the possible confounding factors of social norms in the family that can affect children’s lifestyle have received less attention. TV commercials for food and beverages have been extensively studied and it is important to study the appearance of food in children’s TV programmes in a similar way. The general aim of this thesis is to examine the associations between young children’s screen habits, food habits and anthropometry as well as to analyse food and beverages in children’s television programmes in public service television in Sweden. Data from the European research project Identification and prevention of dietary and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants (IDEFICS) has been used in Papers I-III and 25 hours of children’s TV programmes have been analysed for Paper IV. The main findings indicate that children’s TV viewing and total screen time was found to be associated with their increased sweet drink consumption, BMI and waist to height ratio, according to cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. The association between TV viewing and sweetened beverage consumption was found to be independent of parental norms regarding sweetened beverages. Exposure to commercial TV was associated with consuming sweetened beverages more frequently independently of TV viewing time. One in five foods appearing in the sample of children’s TV programmes was for high-calorie and low-nutrient foods, often appearing with children. The results indicate that it is possible to affect children’s food habits by influencing their TV habits, and that public service television has the potential to improve the way food and eating are depicted in children’s TV programmes.
Idrottsprofilerad utbildning - i spåren av en avreglerad skola
(2014-08-29) Ferry, Magnus
This thesis aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the Swedish school sports system, a system which has evolved since the beginning of the 1970s, the prevalence of which has increased significantly at all school levels since the mid-1990s and today attracts a large number of pupils and teachers. Starting with the neoliberal discourse which has had a major impact on the development of the Swedish school system, and inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, the reasons for the emergence of the school sports system and the reasons why schools chose to specialise in sport is described. Also examined are the pupils and teachers involved and the mechanics behind their participation. Empirically, this thesis is based on registry data, telephone interviews with principals at schools offering school sports and questionnaires responses from pupils and teachers involved in school sports. The results of the thesis suggest that the main reason school sports has become so common is closely connected to increased competition on the local school market; by offering school sports, schools have found a possible way to attract more pupils. Furthermore, the results show that the social characteristics of pupils who have been selected or have chosen to participate in school sports differs from the national population of pupils and participants in sports clubs. This suggests that the available supply of school sports is better adapted to some pupils’ social backgrounds and habitus. In relation to the teachers involved, the results show that other resources than what is normally required to become a teacher is valued in school sports. Instead of a teacher certificate, a coaching education and experiences in competitive sport is valued highly which suggests that this is recognised as symbolic capital for teachers in school sports. In conclusion this thesis demonstrates that school sports is influenced by both the fields of education and sport, and that the increased supply of school sports has implications for both fields.
Tränares makt över spelare i lagidrotter - sett ur French och Ravens maktbasteori
(2014-10-17) Rylander, Pär
Coaches power over athletes in team sports – As seen from French and Ravens theory of power bases. Keywords:team sports, coaching, social power, coaching effectiveness, structural equations modeling. The coach has a central role in sport and is assumed to be of great importance for athletes' performance and experiences of their sport participation. Even so, the scientific knowledge available about what enables coaches’ great influence is scarce. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate coaches’ power over players in team sports to shed some light on this issue. As a theoretical framework French and Ravens theory of power bases was used. The main analyses were built on data from 820 athletes from three different team sports (football, handball and floorball). In the statistical analyses, structural equation modeling was employed. Consistent with previous research in the area, the results showed that the athletes primarily attributed expert and legitimate power as reasons for complying with their coach. Different characteristics of the athletes were shown to influence what or which power bases they attributed. Here the age of the athletes were the characteristic that stood out as the most important characteristic. Sex, player status and length of the relationship with the coach were also shown to predict power base attributions. The results further showed that attributions of power bases were strongly associated with coaching effectiveness (CE), explaining between 12 % and 50 % of the variation in the effectiveness criteria used. The individual bases were shown to have varying relationships with CE. Referent and coercive power were found to be both positively and negatively related; legitimate power was only negatively related; expert power was consistently positively related; and reward power had no unique statistically significant relationship with any of the effectiveness criteria used. In sum, attributions of coaches’ bases of power seems to be of great importance in understanding the influence of team sport coaches, and thereby also for understanding athletes’ performance and experience of their sport participation.
Idrotten sätter agendan. En studie av Riksidrottsgymnasietränares handlande utifrån sitt dubbla uppdrag
(2014-11-14) Hedberg, Marie
This study aims to describe and analyse the actions of the school coaches at the National sport upper secondary schools in light of the conditions that govern and shape the activities at those schools. The theoretical standpoints are based on Lave and Wengers' (1991) theoretical concept community of practice, and as an explanatory theoretical framework Scott's (2008) interpretation of new institutional theory is used. In the analysis of the coaches’ space for actions given the current conditions, Berg's (2014) free space theory is used. The study has a qualitative approach and the design is based on four case studies, where interviews and document analyses have been used to produce the data. The main findings can be summarized in that the cultural-cognitive conditions are very strong, whereas the regulatory and normative conditions play a less significant role. The coaches belong to a community of practice, where the sport’s inherent culture becomes the reference point for how the practice will be run, even though they are part of the school.
Å lære å undervise i kroppsøving. Design for utvikling av teoribasert undervisning og kritisk refleksjon i kroppsøvingslærerutdanningen
(2015-09-11) Kjerland, Glenn Øvrevik
Applying pedagogical theory in professional practice and developing critical awareness are important objectives in teacher education in Sweden. Current evidence indicates that these objectives are difficult to achieve in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). Challenges that limit the students’ ability to apply pedagogical theory in teaching and execute critical reflection were used as objectives for designing and executing a project for learning and development. The aim of the study is to explore how a design that supports students’ development of theory-based teaching and critical reflection in PETE can be realized. Findings indicate that the students' became more aware of the necessity and value of using learning theories in PE teaching. The students’ different conceptualizations of theories and different assessments of theory-based teaching created challenges that oriented negotiations, collaborative learning processes and development of what the students’ meant were valid theory-based teaching concepts within the groups. Development of repertories of theory-based teaching concepts and using them for critical reflection led to discussions and critical analysis which revealed what the students’ meant were dominant teaching methods in PETE. When the differences between learning to teach in different settings and dominant teaching patterns were highlighted, they became resources for articulating and concretizing challenges which limit development of teaching competence in PETE. In one of the five groups these concretization processes led to ideas that may support learning to teach in the future.
Extrem jakt på hälsa. En explorativ studie om ortorexia nervosa.
(2016-01-15) Håman, Linn
Orthorexia nervosa was termed by the physician, Bratman, in the late 1990s. He defined it as an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food to achieve ‘optimal’ health. The term has since received attention in science and media, including in Sweden. Yet, orthorexia remains under establishment, as many symptoms, explanations and behaviors are being related to it. This thesis builds on four articles that create understanding of the term and phenomenon. The overall aim is to elucidate, explore and problematize how orthorexia nervosa is described, understood and reported. The thesis follows a sequential mixed method design. The empirical data consist of survey responses from 251 fitness participants, research findings from 19 empirical and theoretical scientific articles, newspaper texts from 166 Swedish daily newspaper articles, and responses provided by 14 personal trainers (PTs) in five focus group interviews. The findings demonstrate two versions of understanding orthorexia. The Swedish newspapers frame and PTs understand orthorexia to include excessive and obsessive approaches to food and eating, unhealthy and excessive exercise, and an extreme pursuit of a fit body. These characteristics create a Swedish popular version, which conflates orthorexia with exercise dependence and differs from Bratman’s definition. It further differs from scientific knowledge because this version does not include unhealthy and excessive exercise and does not provide consensus on corporeality. Indeed, the scientific knowledge remains limited and disparate. Nevertheless, both versions can be understood as a consequence of ‘aggressive healthism’.
Mästarcoacherna. Att bli, vara och utvecklas som tränare inom svensk elitfotboll
(2016-04-08) Meckbach, Susanne
This thesis aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of what it means to learn to become, be and develop as a coach in Swedish male professional football. The theoretical framework is inspired by sociocultural perspectives on learning and the theory of situated learning, particularly Lave and Wengers’ (2005) concept legitimate peripheral participation and parts of Wenger’s (1998) concept communities of practice. In the analysis of the coaches’ perceptions I have used Nielsen and Kvales’ (2000) characteristics of learning resources in communities of practice and some concepts that belong to the sociocultural tradition and the theory of situated learning; legitimate peripheral participation, shared repertoire, situated identities, scaffolding and more capable. Empirically, the thesis is based on semistructured interviews with ten head coaches of teams in superettan or allsvenskan, the two highest football’s leagues in Sweden. The main findings can be summarized in that the coaches’ teams, including assistant coaches and, e.g., fitness coaches, etc., are important for the coaches’ learning and for them to manage an expanded leadership, tough employment conditions and large external demands of success. The coaches’ interaction with each other in the teams also means that they have great opportunities to form primary communities of practice, where large parts of their learning take place. Inexperienced coaches can accordingly be supported in their learning in a community of practice to which he belongs, but important is also that the coach education supports the coaches’ learning, for example through a focus on leadership issues and analysis of the football game.
Hälsocoach i skolan - En utvärderande fallstudie av en hälsofrämjande intervention
(2016-05-27) Hedström, Pernilla
Today young school children in Sweden spend less time taking part in physical activities, compared to what they did 15-20 years ago. Physical activity is a major health component, which can make children maintain or increase their health. Earlier research has shown that a minimum of 60-90 minutes a day of physical activity is needed for young children to develop good health. The purpose of this study is to explore a longitudinal (two years) health coach intervention, focusing on the effects and experiences of expanded physical activities in an elementary school, managed by a health coach. The research team planned the health coach intervention based on the theoretical model; Youth Physical Activity Promotion Model (YPAPM). In the study, quantitative and qualitative data have been collected over a period of two years. Analysis has shown that the health promotion activities attracted even those children who usually do not like the PE classes. These children like playful activities where they can feel athletic competent and involved. The Health Coach project did not significantly improve the students' healthy lifestyles, at least not in the short term, even if the children had gained new insights about how to promote their own health. This study has shown that a health coach in school could be needed, but this position needs to be full-time, because it requires more efforts to increase children's physical activity. It is also important that the health coach has the right qualification and receive support from the head master and from the class teachers.
Framåt Marsch! Ridlärarrollen från dåtid till samtid med perspektiv på framtid
(2017-02-23) Thorell, Gabriella
Swedish riding schools are characterized by a traditional stable culture that originated in army practices. The riding instructors reinforce these military traditions. Nevertheless, riding instructors and riding schools cannot be isolated and unaffected by society. This thesis identifies and highlights perceptions of the riding instructor’s role and the historical and contemporary conditions that govern and affect this role. Constructions of perceptions and experiences have been central. The selection of the theoretical framework and methodology were to emerge during the process, and by using different research methods the ambition was to strengthen reliability and increase quality. The first study examines how the Swedish National Equestrian Centre at Strömsholm (SNECS) trains riding instructors with a focus on content and the educational environment to understand the educational culture that exists at Swedish riding schools. The second study explored how ten riding instructors perceive and experience their professional role. The third study explored, through focus group interviews, young riders’ perception of the riding school. This thesis has contributed to a deeper understanding of the role of the riding instructor. The result explains why riding schools are still characterized by military norms. The contemporary perspective highlighted how the riding instructors perceived a change based on economic challenges and how these challenges affected their way of teaching. Young rider's perceptions of riding school showed how they develop social skills by participating in the riding school’s community of practice. In conclusion, these results can help strengthen the riding instructor profession and develop the riding school as a centre of knowledge and resources. To encourage further development, the profession should consider current stable culture, how learning takes place in the riding school, and the needs for further education.
Education for Sustainable Food Consumption in Home and Consumer Studies
(2018-02-08) Gisslevik, Emmalee
Education as a means to enable sustainable food consumption has gained increasing recognition as a vital means to decrease current burdens upon both natural resources and human health. In response, the Swedish compulsory school subject of home and consumer studies, which positions education about food as core content, has been revised to incorporate in its national syllabus a perspective of sustainable development since 2011. However, because sustainable development remains an ambiguous, contested concept with a range of definitions and interpretations, it is necessary to gain better understanding of what incorporating its perspective can entail in home and consumer studies, particularly regarding the core food-related content knowledge that it teaches. Building upon four papers, this thesis reports research guided by an interpretive and exploratory approach that involved analysing data from syllabuses, observations, recordings of in-class lessons and interviews with practising teachers. The results reveal two ways of understanding what incorporating a perspective of sustainable development can entail in home and consumer studies in Sweden. The first understanding proposes an enriched and unified practice in which the curriculum prioritises embodied forms of knowledge about healthy, ethical and resource-efficient food consumption by allowing a multi-relational, systems thinking approach while focusing a homemade meal practice. By contrast, the second understanding proposes a practice riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions in providing teaching and learning opportunities to attain the intended goals. This ultimately results in fragmented learning opportunities focused more on informed reasoning than on informed actions. Taken together, both understandings pose theoretical, conceptual and practical implications, both for home and consumer studies in particular and in education for sustainable food consumption in general.
Food, body weight, and health among adolescents in the digital age: An explorative study from a health promotion perspective
(2018-04-16) Holmberg, Christopher
The overall aim of this thesis was to explore adolescents’ relationship with food, body weight, and health communication in online digital media, as well as how adolescents experience participating in a health promotion intervention regarding food and physical activity habits. Health promotion as a research area served three purposes: to inform the research questions, to direct the data collection, and to identify implications from the research findings. The four included studies explored how adolescents portray food in a widely used image-sharing application, why and how adolescents in treatment for obesity engaged with online health-related information, and how these adolescents experienced presenting themselves on social media. The fourth study explored adolescents’ experiences of participating in a healthpromoting intervention, focusing on their experiences of using a social media group within the intervention. Overall, the findings suggest that food is a significant means of adolescents’ online self-presentation practices. Food imagery was most often communicated in a positive way, associated with commercial elements, and often depicting high-calorie foods. Adolescents with obesity experienced this user-generated food content as challenging for their weight management. These findings also question the separation between media and information content as stated in the original definition of eHealth literacy. The findings also emphasize a need to explore the adolescents’ own experiences of acceptability of using social media in health promotion practices, with regards to the type of social media and in what context it was or could be used.
Physical Activity among Adolescents in a Swedish Multicultural Area - An Empowerment-Based Health Promotion School Intervention
(2018-05-22) Fröberg, Andreas
The overarching aim of the present thesis was two-fold. The first aim was to describe and critically reflect upon the experiences of developing and implementing an empowerment-based school intervention, focusing on food and physical activity, involving adolescents from a Swedish multicultural area characterized by low socioeconomic status. The second aim was to investigate accelerometer-measured sedentary time and physical activity among the adolescents, and to evaluate the effects of the intervention on these variables. The two-year intervention was continually developed and implemented, as a result of cooperation and shared decision making among researchers and the participating adolescents. Data was collected in seventh, eighth and ninth grade using documentation and observation protocols, accelerometers, and questionnaires. This thesis shows the importance of acquiring a broad and deep understanding of the targeted context and the participants of the intervention, and to be open-minded when it comes to negotiating, adjusting, and reorganizing empowerment-based interventions. This thesis further shows that the participating girls accumulated more sedentary time and less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than boys, and that approximately half of the adolescents met the physical activity recommendations. The intervention had no positive effects on sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Finally, this thesis shows that cautiousness is warranted when cross-comparing accelerometer-based studies with different epoch durations and cut-points.
Vem och vad kan man lita på? Ungdomars förhållningssätt till budskap om mat och ätande utifrån ett forskarinitierat rollspel.
(2018-09-12) Rendahl, Jenny
In everyday life, adolescents are exposed to multiple messages about food. There is an abundance of information to process and handle, which can lead to confusion and anxiety. The overall aim with this thesis was to develop, analyse and problematize researcher-initiated role-play combined with a subsequent focus group interview resembling food contexts in adolescents’ everyday life, and through the adolescents’ participation in the role-play identify their approach to and negotiation about messages concerning food and eating. The empirical data built on role-playing and focus group interviews with 42 adolescents; boys (14) and girls (28), 15 to 17 years old. The findings revealed that role-playing in combination with subsequent focus group interviews is a suitable research method to study adolescents’ reflexivity regarding food and eating, as it promoted participation and reflections amongst the adolescents. Participation and reflection are crucial elements in Swedish schools, and therefore this method could serve as a pedagogical tool in Home and consumer studies. The results also show that the adolescents were reflexive concerning who to trust when it comes to food messages, bodily risks with food ingested, and food as an identity marker. The adolescents perceived agents who had knowledge or education concerning food and nutrition as well as agents with whom they had a close relationship to be trustworthy. On the other hand, messages conveyed with a commercial interest were less trusted by the adolescents. In addition, this thesis shows that food is much more than nutrients for adolescents; it is also a tool by which to express identity.
Physiological responses to acute physical and psychosocial stress- relation to aerobic capacity and exercise training.
(2019-04-09) Arvidson, Elin
Exercise training is an effective method to promote health and to prevent development of disease. Both physical and mental health have been shown to benefit from exercise training. It has also been speculated that physical exercise might affect responses to acute psychosocial stress. In an acute stress situation, several physiological systems respond to ensure survival and it is suggested that exercise training may influence these stress systems. The main purpose of this thesis was to study physiological responses to acute physical and psychosocial stress and possible associations with aerobic capacity and exercise training. The thesis is based on four papers analysing data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The participants were healthy individuals who reported themselves as untrained at screening. The RCT included testing of acute physical and psychosocial stress. Before and after the tests, hormonal and autonomic responses were assessed. After initial testing, the participants were randomized to either an intervention- or a control group. The intervention consisted of regular aerobic exercise training conducted for six months. At follow-up, the same tests were repeated for both groups. The main findings were that most participants showed an increase in the studied variables in response to acute stress. Aerobic capacity did not seem to have any relation to hormonal or blood pressure responses to acute psychosocial stress. Neither did the subjective perception of stress at the psychosocial stress test correlate with the actual physiological response. Due to methodological issues, it was not possible to evaluate the effects of exercise training. Thus, in healthy individuals, the stress systems seem to respond adequately to acute stress, irrespective of level of aerobic capacity or type of stressor.
Game demands and fatigue profiles in elite football – an individual approach -Implications for training and recovery strategies
(2019-04-12) Fransson, Dan
The physical activities performed during a football game are of intermittent prolonged character, including explosive actions and running at different speeds. The prolonged intermittent activities are conjoined with periods where physical intensity is markedly increased. The intense periods and prolonged activities affect the physiological and metabolic systems which provoke fatigue both temporarily throughout the game as well as towards the end of a game. Therefore, physical training in football should aim to reach physiological and metabolic adaptations to be able to resist fatigue in order to perform optimally throughout the game. Furthermore, post-game recovery and restoration of performance seems to be a slow process. Physical game demands, training responses and recovery can vary largely between players and needs to be studied with individual emphasis. The aim of the thesis is to improve the understanding of physical game demands, fatigue profiles in male elite football players with an emphasis on individual differences and implications for fitness training strategies. Running distance and in-game fatigue profiles were investigated through an analysis of game activity data from top-class football players (n = 473). Post-game fatigue and recovery profiles were examined using maximum voluntary contraction in various muscle groups after a simulated football model in competitive players (n = 12). Inter-individual relations between physical game demands and physical response in different small-sided game formats were investigated with global positioning system techniques on professional players (n = 45). Finally, muscular adaptations and physical performance responses of two different training protocols (four weeks of small-sided games or speed endurance training) were examined by means of pre- and post-intervention muscle biopsies and performance tests on 39 competitive football players. The results demonstrated that all playing positions indicate temporary fatigue after intense periods during a football game. However, after shorter intense periods central defenders were the only position that did not show a decline in running performance. A large inter-player variation in running performance between and within playing positions was found. Post-game fatigue showed large inter-player differences between various muscle groups and between players. Muscle performance in all investigated groups had recovered within 24 hours post-game except trunk-muscles, which was back to baseline values within 48 hours post-game. The physical response in small-sided game formats differed from game demands on an individual level. High intensity training was more potent in up-regulating muscle oxidative capacity and physical performance compared to small-sided games. In conclusion, individual differences in game demands and fatigue profiles are large and need to be considered when planning training. Small-sided games seem not to be the most appropriate training method to meet the individual game demands of all individual players. Thus, in order to increase exercise performance and associated physiological adaptations, additional high-intensity training should be considered for some individual football players.
Lärande av rörelseförmåga i idrott och hälsa ur ett praktikutvecklande perspektiv
(2019-04-25) Bergentoft, Heléne
The aim of this investigation was to explore how the connections between teaching and learning about movement capability in the school subject physical education and health can be developed and transferred through research in practice development. Three research questions guided the investigation (1) What areas regarding teaching of movement capability in the school subject physical education and health have been studied in relation to teachers’ teaching assignment? (2) What necessary prerequisites are required to systematize and transfer research in practice development on movement capability between educational contexts? (3) What linkages are made visible between the treatment of learning content, the teaching design and students’ learning through variation in lesson design? Cultural-historical perspective and variation theory were used as frameworks and the methodology, mixed method research. The empirical data consists of published articles, video-observed lessons, recorded meetings with teachers and students, pre- and post-tests. The findings position the thesis in a guided teaching perspective. Moreover, findings show how the connection between teaching and learning about movement capability systematically can be developed and transferred between teaching contexts through iterative processes with revised lessons based on students’ knowledge. By the use of variation theory, understanding of the meaning of movement capability became more nuanced and itemized. The results also illustrate how the collaboration between teachers and researchers generated development of science-based teaching of movement capability.

Browse

Browsing Doctoral Theses / Doktorsavhandlingar Institutionen för kost- och idrottsvetenskap by Issue Date