2.5. Performance Assessments
fatigue
Participants were assessed on physical function measures of both the upper and lower body. A hand grip dynamometer test was used to assess upper body muscular strength, and a sit-to-stand test was used to measure lower body functionality [During the sit-to-stand assessment, participants performed five consecutive full chair rises from a seated position in a standard armless chair. Participants were instructed to stand as fast as possible from the sitting position with their arms folded across their chest. A hand-held stopwatch was used to time test. The stopwatch began on the participant’s initial movement and stopped as the participant stood upright following the fifth repetition. The time to perform all five repetitions was recorded. In addition, each participant wore a belt around their waist, which was connected to a Tendo™ Power Output Unit (Tendo Sports Machines, Trencin, Slovak Republic). The Tendo™ unit consists of a transducer attached to the end of the belt, which measures linear displacement and time. Subsequently, the velocity of each movement was determined, and power was calculated. In addition to recording the highest power attained, the power output of all five repetitions was averaged (e.g., mean power), and the lowest power output attained was divided by the highest power output to provide a fatigue index. Test-retest reliability for the sit-to-stand test was determined by using 20 participants in the placebo group measured 5 weeks apart. The ICC (3,1) was 0.773 (SEM = 1.49 s).