Associations Between Instrumented Mouthguard-Measured Head Acceleration Events and Post-Match Biomarkers of Astroglial and Axonal Injury in Male Amateur Australian Football Players.

Background: Advances in instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) allow for accurate quantification of single high-acceleration head impacts and cumulative head acceleration exposure in collision sports. However, relationships between these measures and risk of brain cell injury remain unclear.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to quantify measures of non-concussive head impact exposure and assess their association with blood glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), neurofilament light (NfL) and phosphorylated-tau-181 (p-tau-181) levels in male Australian football players.

Head Kinematics Associated with Off-Field Head Injury Assessment (HIA1) Events in a Season of English Elite-Level Club Men's and Women's Rugby Union Matches.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate head kinematic variables in elite men's and women's rugby union and their ability to predict player removal for an off-field (HIA1) head injury assessment.

Methods: Instrumented mouthguard (iMG) data were collected for 250 men and 132 women from 1865 and 807 player-matches, respectively, and synchronised to video-coded match footage. Head peak resultant linear acceleration (PLA), peak resultant angular acceleration (PAA) and peak change in angular velocity (dPAV) were extracted from each head acceleration event (HAE).

The Relationship Between Length and Active Force for Submaximal Skeletal Muscle Contractions: a Review.

The force-length relationship is usually obtained for isometric contractions with maximal activation, but less is known about how sarcomere length affects force during submaximal activation. During submaximal activation, length-dependent alterations in calcium sensitivity, owing to changes in cross-bridge kinetics (rate of attachment and/or detachment), result in an activation-dependent shift in optimal length to longer sarcomere lengths. It is known that sarcomere length, as well as temperature and phosphorylation of the regulatory light chains of myosin, can modify Ca⁺ sensitivity by altering the probability of cross-bridge interaction.

Changes in Cardiorespiratory Fitness Following Exercise Training Prescribed Relative to Traditional Intensity Anchors and Physiological Thresholds: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis of Individual Participant Data.

Background: It is unknown whether there are differences in maximal oxygen uptake ( O) response when prescribing intensity relative to traditional (TRAD) anchors or to physiological thresholds (THR).

Objectives: The present meta-analysis sought to compare: (a) mean change in O, (b) proportion of individuals increasing O beyond a minimum important difference (MID) and (c) response variability in O between TRAD and THR.

Methods: Electronic databases were searched, yielding data for 1544 individuals from 42 studies.

DyNamic Interactive Anticipation-Time for a Paradigmatic Shift.

Everyday human interactions require observers to anticipate the actions of others (e.g., when walking past another in a corridor or choosing where to hit a ground stroke in tennis).

Professional Male Soccer Players' Perspectives of the Nutrition Culture Within an English Premier League Football Club: A Qualitative Exploration Using Bourdieu's Concepts of Habitus, Capital and Field.

Background And Aim: Professional soccer players' self-reported dietary intakes often do not meet recommended sport nutrition guidelines. Although behaviour change models have previously explored barriers and enablers to nutritional adherence, the cultural factors influencing players' nutritional habits also warrant investigation. Accordingly, we aimed to explore players' perceptions of the nutrition culture within the professional soccer environment.

A Novel Method to Predict Carbohydrate and Energy Expenditure During Endurance Exercise Using Measures of Training Load.

Background: Sports nutrition guidelines recommend carbohydrate (CHO) intake be individualized to the athlete and modulated according to changes in training load. However, there are limited methods to assess CHO utilization during training sessions.

Objectives: We aimed to (1) quantify bivariate relationships between both CHO and overall energy expenditure (EE) during exercise and commonly used, non-invasive measures of training load across sessions of varying duration and intensity and (2) build and evaluate prediction models to estimate CHO utilization and EE with the same training load measures and easily quantified individual factors.

Relationship between Cognitive Demands and Biomechanical Indicators Associated with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury: A Systematic Review.

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury during contact sports has a high incidence that has not been reduced despite the immense resources devoted to understanding its aetiology. A neurocognitive approach could increase knowledge of the mechanisms contributing to ACL injury enabling practitioners to address and minimise future risk.

Objective: To systematically review the influence of manipulating cognitive demands during motor tasks (i.

The Battle of the Equations: A Systematic Review of Jump Height Calculations Using Force Platforms.

Vertical jump height measures our ability to oppose gravity and lower body neuromuscular function in athletes and various clinical populations. Vertical jump tests are principally simple, time-efficient, and extensively used for assessing athletes and generally in sport science research. Using the force platform for jump height estimates is increasingly popular owing to technological advancements and its relative ease of use in diverse settings.

Hop to It! A Systematic Review and Longitudinal Meta-analysis of Hop Performance After ACL Reconstruction.

Background: Hop testing is widely used by clinicians to monitor rehabilitation and decide when to return to sport following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR); however, the trajectory of long-term hop performance has not been summarised.

Objective: To investigate hop performance change over time after ACLR.

Design: Systematic review with longitudinal meta-analysis.

Decoding Ultramarathon: Muscle Damage as the Main Impediment to Performance.

The biological determinants of performance have been well described for running races up to and including the marathon (42.2 km). Ultramarathon is more complex.

Effects of Exercise Training on Mitochondrial and Capillary Growth in Human Skeletal Muscle: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression.

Background: Skeletal muscle mitochondria and capillaries are crucial for aerobic fitness, and suppressed levels are associated with chronic and age-related diseases. Currently, evidence-based exercise training recommendations to enhance these characteristics are limited. It is essential to explore how factors, such as fitness level, age, sex, and disease affect mitochondrial and capillary adaptations to different exercise stimuli.

Optimizing Resistance Training for Sprint and Endurance Athletes: Balancing Positive and Negative Adaptations.

Resistance training (RT) triggers diverse morphological and physiological adaptations that are broadly considered beneficial for performance enhancement as well as injury risk reduction. Some athletes and coaches therefore engage in, or prescribe, substantial amounts of RT under the assumption that continued increments in maximal strength capacity and/or muscle mass will lead to improved sports performance. In contrast, others employ minimal or no RT under the assumption that RT may impair endurance or sprint performances.

Characteristics of High-Intensity Interval Training Influence Anthropometrics, Glycemic Control, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Exercise is a non-pharmacological intervention for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), including moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Despite diverse exercise protocol variations, the impact of these variations in HIIT on T2DM anthropometrics, glycemic control, and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) remains unclear.

Objective: The aim was to examine the influence of HIIT protocol characteristics on anthropometrics, glycemic control, and CRF in T2DM patients and compare it to control (without exercise) and MICT.

Psychological Assessment and Intervention at the Boston Marathon.

The Boston Marathon is a highly regarded event in the running world, not just for its prestige and challenging course, but also for its implementation of a psychology team to support runners. The 2013 Boston Marathon bombings underscored the essential role that mental health support plays at this event, prompting the development and expansion of its innovative care model. This review critically outlines, evaluates, and analyzes the approach and effectiveness of the psychological care model provided to runners on race day as part of the Boston Marathon medical team, including the standard of care, how it functions, and best practices for other marathons.

Responses to Exercise with Low Carbohydrate Availability on Muscle Glycogen and Cell Signaling: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: The growing interest in how exercise and carbohydrate (CHO) restriction may modify molecular responses that promote endurance adaptations has led to many interesting controversies.

Objective: We conducted a systematic review and a meta-analysis regarding the effect of low-carbohydrate availability (LOW) pre-, during, or post-exercise, on the mRNA content of commonly measured genes involved in mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC-1α, TFAM mRNA) and metabolism (PDK4, UCP3 and GLUT4 mRNA), and on muscle glycogen levels, compared with a high-CHO (CON) condition.

Methods: MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines (with an end date of November 2023).

Nutrition and Golf Performance: A Systematic Scoping Review.

Background: Golf is played both recreationally and professionally by approximately 66.6 million people worldwide. Despite the potential for nutrition to influence golf performance, research in this area is somewhat limited.

The Effect of Exercise Training on Blood Lipids: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Dyslipidemia is a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Exercise training (EXTr) improves some lipid markers but not others; the literature is dated and analyses may be underpowered.

Objectives: To clarify which lipid markers are altered with ExTr and establish if information size had yet reached futility.