functional exercises

Nowadays, one of the most important and influential segments in society is related to the medical professionals, including doctors and nurses. In recent years, we have witnessed their sacrifices in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the health and lifestyle of nurses can be quite challenging due to their different working conditions. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of general exercise in a functional way on the motivation of military nurses to participate in sports classes. The study is semi-experimental, with participants divided into control and experimental groups. The statistical population consists of military nurses in the army, with 34 of them selected through sampling. The data collection tool was the Gill et al (1983), which was used to determine the reliability of different sections using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which was 0.80 for all variables. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to examine the normal distribution of data, and the Levene's test was used to examine the homogeneity of variances. The data were analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the mean of the experimental and control groups. The results showed that general functional exercises have a significant effect on the motivation of military nurses to participate in sports classes (sig = 0.36, F=18.38); furthermore, other components of the study such as progress, readiness created, energy discharge, and group cohesion of military nurses also had a positive effect.

Fear of falling reduces the independence and dependence of the elderly and leads to negative consequences such as reduced activities of daily living (ADL), reduced physical activity, and lower quality of life. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effect of 8 weeks of functional and balance exercises on the fear of falling and the quality of life of the elderly.

The current research was semi-experimental (interventional) with a pre-test and post-test design. For this research, a total of 60 elderly individuals over the age of 65 were randomly selected using codes that were pre-written by a research colleague on special sheets. The participants were divided into two groups: functional exercises (30 people) with an average age of 66, and balance exercises (30 people) with an average age of 65. Two groups performed the exercises for eight weeks, with three 1- hour sessions each week. The International Form of Fear of Falling was used to measure the fear of falling, and the Lipad Quality of Life questionnaire assessed the quality of life. Data analysis was done with SPSS software, version 23. Independent t-tests and dependent t-tests were used to determine the difference between the pre-test and post-test, between groups and within groups, respectively, at a significant level of p < 0.05.

Intra- group comparison in both groups showed a significant difference between the mean fear of falling and quality of life in the elderly in the pre-test and post-test (P = 0.001). However, in the comparison between groups in the pre-test (P = 0.884) and post-test (P = 0.566), fear of falling, and in the pre-test (P = 0.507) and post-test (P = 0.603), quality of life was not significantly different between the two groups.

According to the findings of this study, it seems that functional and balance exercises reduce the fear of falling and increase the quality of life of the elderly.

Subjective mental retardation is one of the agents that in the condition people have less activity than other normal one because of their mental and psychological problem. Based on type of society approach to them, they have less active in comparison with healthy people, and due to this lack of mobility, suffer from physical–motor weakness. One of ways to improve motor behavior of children with intellectual disabilities is physical activity and exercise. Experts believe that physical fitness is a prerequisite for success in other forms of movement. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to compare effects of functional exercises and school games on motor skills of educable intelligence girls.

This study was semi experimental and pre–test and post–test. The statistical samples of this study was 30 girl students 10–16 year’s old schoolchildren of psychology and exceptional school from Neiriz city (Fars province, South of Iran). Participants were identified based on diagnosis of mentally retarded psychiatrists and at Raven's intelligence test; they scored 50 to 70, indicating that they were educable. Then the participants were ranked from top to bottom according to the score in the test. Therefore, based on three consecutive scores divided in the exercise practice group, control group and primary game group. The instrument for collecting data in this study was the Brinhinks–Overstrain expiratory test, which is a normal reference for general and subtle motor skills. Some functional exercises practice included walking forward, sitting and getting up from the chair, spiral movement from eight cones for distance of 1 meter, standing on the soles and heels of feet, along with changes in the direction of the side to side, front and rear. In the primary games group, 45 minutes played after 15 minutes warming, were considered smooth running. The exercise practice group, as well as the primary school group, trained for 8 weeks and the control group was only followed up and did not receive an intervention. For data analysis, SPSS software version 21 was used for comparison between paired t–test and covariance analysis was used for comparison between groups. A significant level of p≤0.001 was considered.

The results of covariance analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the scores in the exercises practice and primary school game and the control group. These deference were in the large motor skills (F=81.54, p≤0.001), balance (F=28.8, p≤0.001), coordination (F=19.47, p≤0.001), running speed (F=74.22, p≤0.001) and foot strength (F=98.9, p≤0.001). Also, post–test results showed that there was no significant difference between the scores in the functional training group and the games in the variables of gross motor skills, balance, coordination, running speed and strength of the feet.

Functional exercises and primary school games can be used to improve motor skills and balance, leg strength, speed, and coordination of girls with intellectual disabilities.