In Memoriam
Research Interests
Dr. Angelo Belcastro made tremendous contributions in his research career studying the impact of physical activity and fitness on children’s health for over 30 years. His research allowed him to create an approach called “Guided Active Play” to inspire healthy levels of activity for children and that is used in his KIN KIDS program in local neighborhoods. This program serves several important goals, engaging community collaborators and students, as well as generating data for further research. His main research areas focused on understanding the ‘dose-response’ interaction underlying children’s physical activity/exercise patterns on the improvements in children’s body composition (fat mass and fat-free mass), muscular strength and power, cardiovascular/cardiorespiratory physiology and fitness, and developmental aspects of fundamental motor skills (FMS) and physical literacy. Angelo was a tremendous colleague and leader in children’s health research. He will be greatly missed but his legacy will continue through his research contributions and the many graduate students and colleagues he mentored.
Published Manuscripts (Select Publications)
Madu, G., Kwong, V., Calic, D., Cleworth, T., & Belcastro, A. (2025). The Role of Fundamental Movement Skills and Health-Related Fitness on Physical Activity During Guided Active Play for 8- to 10-Year-Old Children. Children, 12(6), 805. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12060805
Moghaddaszadeh, A., Roudier, E., Edgell, H., Vinet, A., & Belcastro, A. N. (2025). A 5-Week Guided Active Play Program Modulates Skin Microvascular Reactivity in Healthy Children. Pediatric Exercise Science, 37(2), 128-137. Retrieved Mar 4, 2026, from https://doi.org/10.1123/pes.2023-0138
Moghaddaszadeh, A., & Belcastro, A. N. (2021). Guided Active Play Promotes Physical Activity and Improves Fundamental Motor Skills for School-Aged Children. Journal of sports science & medicine, 20(1), 86–93. https://doi.org/10.52082/jssm.2021.86
Moghaddaszadeh, A., Jamnik, V., & Belcastro, A. N. (2018). Characteristics of children's physical activity during active play. The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 58(4), 369–376. https://doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.16.06704-9
Moghaddaszadeh, A., Ahmadi, Y., & Belcastro, A. N. (2017). Children and adolescent physical activity participation and enjoyment during active play. The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 57(10), 1375–1381. https://doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.16.06732-3
Belcastro, A.N, Mofidi, D. M., Ahmadi, Y., & Moghaddaszadeh, A. (2015). Correlates of Psychosocial Health-related Quality of Life Measures for Normal Weight and Obese Children Participating in an Active Play Program. J Child Adolesc Behav, 3(242), 2.
Belcastro, A. N., Morrison, K. S., Hicks, E., & Matta, H. (2012). Cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses associated with children's physical activity during self-paced games. Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 90(9), 1269–1276. https://doi.org/10.1139/y2012-106
Enns, D. L., Raastad, T., Ugelstad, I., & Belcastro, A. N. (2007). Calpain/calpastatin activities and substrate depletion patterns during hindlimb unweighting and reweighting in skeletal muscle. European journal of applied physiology, 100(4), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-007-0445-4
Enns, D. L., & Belcastro, A. N. (2006). Early activation and redistribution of calpain activity in skeletal muscle during hindlimb unweighting and reweighting. Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 84(6), 601–609. https://doi.org/10.1139/y06-013
Enns, D., Karmazyn, M., Mair, J., Lercher, A., Kountchev, J., & Belcastro, A.N (2002). Calpain, calpastatin activities and ratios during myocardial ischemia-reperfusion. Molecular and cellular biochemistry, 241(1-2), 29-35.
Tiidus, P. M., Zajchowski, S., Enns, D., Holden, D., Bombardier, E., & Belcastro, A. N. (2002). Differential effect of oestrogen on post-exercise cardiac muscle myeloperoxidase and calpain activities in female rats. Acta physiologica Scandinavica, 174(2), 131–136. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-201X.2002.00931.x
Tiidus, P. M., Holden, D., Bombardier, E., Zajchowski, S., Enns, D., & Belcastro, A. (2001). Estrogen effect on post-exercise skeletal muscle neutrophil infiltration and calpain activity. Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 79(5), 400-406.
Frangolias, D. D., Rhodes, E. C., Taunton, J. E., & Belcastro, A. N. (2000). Metabolic responses to prolonged work during treadmill and water immersion running. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 3(4), 476-492.