Professor
Research Interests
Dr. Angelo Belcastro has been studying the impact of physical activity and fitness on children’s health for over 30 years. His research has 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 focuses 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.
Contact
Department: School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences
Email address: anbelcas@yorku.ca
York U Profile link: https://health.yorku.ca/health-profiles/index.php?dept=&mid=895690
Lab website: https://health.research.yorku.ca/six-connected-themes/angelo-belcastro/
Research Gate Link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angelo_Belcastro
PubMed Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&size=200&term=Belcastro+AN&cauthor_id=22913550
Published Manuscripts (Select Publications)
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
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
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.