Joe Eisenmann

• PhD
• Professor at Saint Xavier University

Humans are fascinated by the bipedal locomotor capacities at both ends of the athletic spectrum—sprinting speed and endurance. Some of the more popular field (eg, soccer, rugby, and lacrosse) and court (eg, basketball, tennis, and netball) sports utilize mixed energy systems requiring an interplay of both maximal sprinting speed (MSS) and maximal a...

Background Motor competence is an integral component of the health and performance of youth. Numerous studies support the hypothesis that motor competence interacts with perceived motor competence and physical fitness during childhood to induce positive (e.g. healthy weight status) or negative (e.g. reduced physical activity engagement) trajectorie...

Context: Flag football is promoted as a safer alternative to tackle football. This may be one reason why participation rates have risen by 39% over the past three years. Despite rising participation, there remains a lack of epidemiologic research on sport-specific injuries and associated relative risk. Objective: To prospectively document epidem...

Physical education (PE) teachers and strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches are well placed to develop motor competence within youth populations. However, both groups’ perceptions of important motor competencies are relatively unknown, especially when considering stage of maturity. Therefore, this study aimed to 1) present PE teachers and S&C coac...

Motor competence (MC) refers to one’s ability to perform a variety of tasks, where outcomes are underpinned by movement quality, control, and coordination. Numerous studies support the hypothesis that MC interacts with perceived MC and physical fitness during childhood to induce positive (e.g., healthy weight status) or negative (e.g., reduced phys...

Long-term athletic development practices have been recommended for the past two decades. However, limited research exists exploring the knowledge and skills required by practitioners to optimise long-term athletic development. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, adherence, practices, and challenges of practitioners responsible fo...

In 2015, the Society of Health and Physical Educators of America (SHAPE America) launched 50 Million StrongTM with goals of improving physical literacy, increasing physical activity levels, and encouraging lifelong physical activity among children by the year 2029. Not only are youth sports programs crucial to meeting 50 Million StrongTM goals, but...

We designed grip strength standards for youth by back-extrapolating cutpoints based on weakness at age 65. Existing standards, based on insufficient bone mineral content (BMC), were also compared in a nationally representative sample. Altogether, 6837 participants (n = 2199 ≤ 18.9 years of age) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Sur...

Proficient motor competence is important for the health and athleticism of all youths (Cattuzzo et al., 2016, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19, 123-129). Recent research indicates that strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches perceive it as important to develop a broad range of motor competencies within youths (Burton et al., in review,...

Motor competency is integral to the long-term athletic development of youths. Strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches are recommended to deliver motor competency interventions, yet no studies have investigated their perceptions and practices for developing motor competency in youths. Sixty-seven male, and 4 female S&C coaches completed an initial a...

Context: Across adolescence, there is a notable decline in physical activity in boys and girls. Maturational timing may be a risk factor for disengagement from physical activity and increased sedentary behaviours during adolescence. Objective: This systematic review aimed to summarise literature that examined the relationship between maturationa...

Apply It! • Health and fitness professionals working with children and adolescents should first understand normal growth, maturation, and development (the “business of growing up”) when considering the implementation and effect of lifestyle behaviors. • Fundamental movement skills provide the foundation or building blocks for developing confidence...

The implementation of long-term athletic development (LTAD) aims to improve health, physical activity, and performance of all youth. Contemporary LTAD models suggest that a broad range of physical and psychosocial competencies should be developed in youth, but few resources are available for coaches that describe “how” to achieve these outcomes. Th...

Objective This study examined trajectories of trunk fat mass (FM) accrual during emerging adulthood of individuals categorized, at 36 years of age, as having higher compared with lower scores of (1) metabolic risk and (2) blood pressure risk. Methods Fifty‐five individuals from the Saskatchewan Pediatric Bone Mineral Accrual Study (1991‐2017) were...

Fullagar, HHK, Harper, LD, Govus, A, McCunn, R, Eisenmann, J, and McCall, A. Practitioner perceptions of evidence-based practice in elite sport in the United States of America. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2019-Practitioners' perceptions regarding the use and effectiveness of research evidence in sport is not well understood. The purpose of...

Interpreting change in Body mass index (BMI) among youth by comparison to growth charts can be difficult because of maturation-related changes. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the utility of several alternative methods for assessing change in BMI among children. Participants included 1,615 children measured for stature and body mass in first...

The National Academy of Medicine recommends the handgrip for school-based surveillance of muscle strength for bone health. We established grip strength cutpoints that are linked to bone health in both US and European youth. These cutpoints could serve as a potential set of standards for surveillance and clinical applications. Purpose The U.S. Nati...

Children who are overweight and obese display lower physical activity levels than normal weight peers. Measures of weight status, perceived motor competence, and motor skill performance have been identified as potential correlates explaining this discrepancy. 1881 children (955 males; 926 females; 9.9 years) were assessed as part of the Physical He...

Purpose: The objective of this study was to examine the independent and combined association of physical activity and body mass index (BMI) with blood pressure in youth. Methods: Youth aged 8-18 years from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) with BMI, blood pressure, and physical activity (accelerometer) were...

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe the derivation of the continuous metabolic syndrome score using nationally representative reference values in a sample of obese adolescents and a national sample obtained from NHANES 2011-2012. Methods: Clinical data were collected from 50 adolescents seeking obesity treatment at a stage 3 weig...

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate whether adolescent growth trajectories of aerobic fitness and adiposity were associated with mid-adulthood cardiometabolic risk (CMR). Methods Participants were drawn from the Saskatchewan Growth and Development Study (1963–1973). Adolescent growth trajectories for maximal aerobic capacity (absolute...

Individual differences in the growth and maturation have been shown to impact player performance and development in youth soccer. This study investigated Premier League academy players’ experiences of participating in a tournament bio-banded for biological maturation. Players (N = 66) from four professional soccer clubs aged 11 and 14 years and bet...

Bio-banding is the process of grouping athletes on the basis of attributes associated with growth and maturation rather than chronological age. Children of the same age vary considerably in biological maturation with some individuals maturing in advance or delay of their peers. The timing of maturation has important implications for competition, ta...

ABSTRACT “Bridging the gap” and “science into practice” have long been themes in high-performance sports training, conditioning, and monitoring. Recently, parallel developments in sports science and translational science in the United States have perhaps set the stage for a new era to solve old problems. This article will discuss the trends in spor...

An estimated 45 million youth participate in organized youth sport in North America. Sport has important physical, psychological, and social developmental consequences for youth. Despite the perceived benefits of youth sport, concerns have been raised about potential injury and burnout for youth athletes competing at high levels as a result of exce...

Statistical method for longitudinal analysis

Background: Both cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and measures of muscular fitness are associated with metabolic syndrome in adults. However, limited information exists about these relationships in youth with severe obesity who are at increased risk of metabolic dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fitness...

Background: The Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Screening Tool (FNPA) evaluates family behavioural and environmental factors associated with pediatric obesity, but it is unknown if FNPA scores differ among youth across obesity severities. Our aim was to determine the association between the FNPA and obesity severity in youth referred to wei...

The purpose of the study was to describe current levels of musculoskeletal fitness (MSF) in U.S. youth by creating nationally representative age- and sex-specific growth curves for handgrip strength (including relative and allometrically scaled handgrip), modified pull-ups, and the plank test. Participants in the National Youth Fitness Survey (n =...

Background: The role of psychosocial stress in the development of obesity and metabolic syndrome is receiving increased attention and has led to examination of whether physical activity may moderate the stress-metabolic syndrome relationship. The present study examined relationships among physical activity, stress, and metabolic syndrome in adoles...

Background: Studies concerning child and adolescent growth, development, performance and health aimed at the multiple interactions amongst this complex set of variables are not common in the Portuguese speaking countries. Aim: The aim of this paper is to address the key ideas, methodology and design of the Oporto Growth, Health and Performance S...

In this paper, three different statistical approaches were used to investigate short-term tracking of cardiorespiratory and performance-related physical fitness among adolescents. Data were obtained from the Oporto Growth, Health and Performance Study and comprised 1203 adolescents (549 girls) divided into two age cohorts (10-12 and 12-14 years) fo...

Objective: Objective: To examine the association of the Family Nutrition and Physical Activity (FNPA) screening tool with weight status, percent body fat, and acanthosis nigricans (AN) in 6- to 13-year-old children from a low socioeconomic, urban community. Methods: Children (n=415) from four elementary schools located around Flint, Michigan wer...

Objectives: This study aimed to: (1) model changes in the hypertensive and waist phenotype (HWP) in youth, and (2) investigate the effects of sex, biological maturation, total physical activity (TPA), and physical fitness (PF) in HWP trajectories. Methods: Data were obtained annually for 3 years from the Oporto Growth, Health, and Performance St...

Background: In this article, we describe a protocol used to test the functional capacity of the obese pediatric patient and describe the peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) of patients seeking treatment at a pediatric weight management center. Methods: One hundred eleven (mean age, 12.5 ± 3.0 years) patients performed a multistage exercise test on...

Tracking refers to the idea of maintaining a relative position within a given group of individuals as they change in time. This paper presents several approaches to study and analyze tracking (i.e., stability and predictability) and its application in physical education and sport. We will use data from a mixed-longitudinal study conducted in the ci...

Project FIT was a two-year multi-component nutrition and physical activity intervention delivered in ethnically-diverse low-income elementary schools in Grand Rapids, MI. This paper reports effects on children's nutrition outcomes and process evaluation of the school component. A quasi-experimental design was utilized. 3rd, 4th and 5th-grade studen...

Objectives The aims of this study were twofold: (1) to model changes in body mass index (BMI) of 10 to 18 years old adolescents, and (2) to investigate the effects of total physical activity (TPA), physical fitness (PF), sleep duration and fruits/vegetables consumption in BMI trajectories across time.Methods Data were obtained from the Oporto Growt...

O propósito deste estudo é apresentar o uso da modelação multinível (MMN) com informação oriunda de um estudo longitudinal-misto sobre o crescimento, desenvolvimento e saúde de adolescentes portugueses. A amostra foi composta por 5155 indivíduos divididos em quatro coortes que abrangem as faixas etárias dos 10 aos 12, 12 aos 14, 14 aos 16 e 16 aos...

: We examined the associations among daily cortisol, physical activity (MVPA) and continuous metabolic syndrome score (cMetS) in obese youth. : Fifty adolescents (mean age 14.8±1.9 years) were recruited from medical clinics. Daily MVPA (min/day) was assessed by accelerometry. Saliva was sampled at prescribed times: immediately upon waking; 30 min a...

Aim: The present study aims (1) to provide reference percentile charts for the following measures of Physical Fitness (PF): the sit-and-reach, handgrip, standing long jump, 50 yards' dash, 4x10m shuttle run and 1-mile run/walk tests in children aged 6 to 10 years, and (2) to compare the performance of the Portuguese children with their age- and se...

BACKGROUND Children spend most of their awake time at school, and it is important to identify individual and school-level correlates of their physical activity (PA) levels. This study aimed to identify the between-school variability in Portuguese children PA and to investigate student and school PA correlates using multilevel modeling.METHODS The s...

This paper describes FitKids360, a stage 2 pediatric weight management program. FitKids360 is a physician-referred, multicomponent, low-cost healthy lifestyle program for overweight and obese youth 5-16 years of age and their families. FitKids360 provides an evidence-based approach to the treatment of pediatric overweight by targeting patients' phy...

In children, levels of play, physical activity, and fitness are key indicators of health and disease and closely tied to optimal growth and development. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) provides clinicians with biomarkers of disease and effectiveness of therapy, and researchers with novel insights into fundamental biological mechanisms refle...

Physical activity (PA), television time (TV) and sleep duration (SLP) are considered individual risk factors for adolescent obesity. Our aim was to investigate the concurrent influence of meeting PA, SLP and TV recommendations on adolescent obesity utilizing 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS) data. Subjects included 9,589 (4,874 f...

The National Physical Activity Plan Alliance partnered with physical activity experts to develop a report card that provides a comprehensive assessment of physical activity among United States children and youth. The 2014 U.S. Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth includes 10 indicators: overall physical activity levels, sedentary...

The purpose of this study was to provide a practical demonstration of the impact monitoring frame and metric have when assessing pedometer-determined physical activity (PA) in youth. 1,111 children were asked to wear a pedometer over a 7-day period wherein time-worn and steps were recorded each day. Varying data-exclusion criteria were used to demo...

Importance Children spend more time with electronic media than they do in any other activity, aside from sleep. Many of the negative effects that stem from media exposure may be reduced by parental monitoring of children's media use; however, there lacks a clear understanding of the mechanisms and extent of these protective effects.Objective To d...

Aim. To examine the simultaneous influence of physical activity, screen time, and sleep duration recommendations on the odds of childhood obesity (including overweight). Methods. Physical activity was assessed via pedometer and screen time, and sleep duration were assessed via survey in a cross sectional sample of 674 children (aged 7-12 years) fro...

To compare the diagnostic performance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and FITNESSGRAM (FGram) BMI standards for quantifying metabolic risk in youth. Adolescents in the NHANES (n = 3385) were measured for anthropometric variables and metabolic risk factors. BMI percentiles were calculated, and youth were categorized by weight...

Experimental studies manipulating diet and exercise have shown varying effects on metabolic syndrome components in both humans and rodents. To examine the potential interactive effects of diet, exercise and genetic background, we studied mice from four replicate lines bred (52 generations) for high voluntary wheel running (HR lines) and four unsele...

Purpose: FitKids 360 is a low-cost (free to patients), multi-disciplinary, family-based healthy lifestyle program targeting overweight and obese youth 5-16 years of age and their families. The purpose of this study was to assess changes in family health behaviors and youth adiposity. Methods: Youth with BMI ≥85thpercentile for age and sex were en...

To examine the independent and combined association of self-efficacy and fatness with physical activity in 5(th) grade children. Participants were 281 students (10.4 ± 0.7 years). Physical activity was assessed using a self-report question. Self-efficacy to be physically active was assessed using a 5-point scale. Body fatness was assessed by bioele...

Abstract Several studies have examined energy expenditure in various sports but there is a lack of research on the contribution of exercise and habitual activity during different training periods. This study examined changes in total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and its components during high- and low-volume training periods. Further, changes in...

Background: Although adults' aerobic fitness is known to be correlated with cardiovascular disease risk, the longitudinal relationship with adolescent aerobic fitness is poorly described. Aim: To longitudinally investigate the relationship between aerobic fitness during adolescence and adulthood. Subjects and methods: Participants (207 boys, 1...

To determine the joint association of junk food consumption (JFC) and screen time (ST) with adiposity in children. Two hundred fourteen (121 girls, 93 boys) third-to-fifth-grade students (54% Hispanic, 35% African American, 8% white) completed a lifestyle behavior survey, which included self-reported JFC and ST, as part of a school-based lifestyle...

The purpose of this study was to determine the independent and joint association of weight status and physical activity on resting blood pressure and C-reactive protein in children. Participants were 174 (71 males, 103 females) children (mean age = 10.5 ± 0.4 yrs). Physical activity was self-reported, body mass index was calculated from measured he...

Relationships among chronological age (CA), maturation, training experience and body dimensions with peak oxygen uptake (VO2max) were considered in male basketball players 14-16 years. Data for all players included maturity status estimated as percentage of predicted adult stature attained at the time of the study (Khamis-Roche protocol), years of...

The increasing prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has been associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). While several studies examined the effect of single behaviors such as physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior or diet on CVD risk, there is a lack of research on combined associations, specifically in childre...

Objectives: This study presents the role, design, and results of the social marketing approach used in Project FIT, a school-, and community-based program for promoting healthy eating and physical activity (PA) in four low-income, urban, and ethnically diverse elementary schools and neighborhoods in Michigan. Method: The process evaluation includ...

Objective: Cardiorespiratory fitness is known to be cardioprotective and its association with the components of the metabolic syndrome in children is becoming clearer. The aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness may offset the weight-related association with mean arterial pressure (MAP) in schoolchildr...

Background: Except for North America and Europe, few studies have reported the association among physical activity (PA), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in youths, especially for rural African youth. Aim: The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of PA levels, CRF, MetS and its indicators, and examine...

Background: Both reduced moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and increased screen time have been implicated in the aetiology of childhood overweight/obesity. This study aimed to determine which behaviour had the stronger association with overweight/obesity. Method: 2200 randomly selected 9- to 16-year-old Australians provided four 24-h...

The 9th Stock Conference acknowledged the complex background of genetic, cultural, environmental and evolutionary factors of obesity. Gene-environment interactions underlie the flexibility in body-weight and body-fat regulation, illustrated by the hunter-gatherers' feast and famine lifestyle, the variation in physical activity over the lifespan bei...

A key barrier to achieving recommended intensity and duration of physical activity is motivation. We investigated whether a virtually present partner would influence participants' motivation (duration) during aerobic exercise. Fifty-eight females (M (age) = 20.54 ± 1.86) were randomly assigned to either a coactive condition (exercising alongside an...

This study examined the interrelationships among physical activity (PA), percent body fat (%BF), and motor performance (MP) in 498 6- to 8-year-old Danish children. PA was assessed by accelerometer, %BF was calculated from skinfolds, and the Koordinations Test für Kinder along with a throwing accuracy test was used to assess MP. PA was not correlat...