Cristiano Ronaldo’s gruelling diet and exercise regime reveals how the star manages to still be at his peak, even at the age of 36.
Although undoubtedly gifted with bags of talent, Ronaldo works extremely hard to ensure he’s in top physical condition – including chowing down on frequent healthy meals and participating in three to four hours of workouts every day.
To keep his fitness levels up, Ronaldo is a fan of swimming and Pilates, while also working out at the gym five times a week, where he mixes it up between high-intensity cardio and weight lifting.
What Josh Kerr wanted, quite frankly, was to win the Olympic 1500m.
But the bronze medal, to fans of the sport not yet familiar with the 23-year-old Brooks Beast, was spectacularly unexpected and, even Kerr acknowledges, a very big deal. Competing for Team Great Britain, Kerr’s 3:29.05 performance in the 1500m final in Tokyo was the first medal for the elite Brooks group headed by coach Danny Mackey.
“I have very lofty goals, and I’ll continue to in my career,” Kerr says. “For me, it was like, ‘I’m at the Olympics, I think I’m one of the best, someone has to win this thing, so why not me?’”
To a close observer of Kerr’s career trajectory, the performance shouldn’t have been shocking. Since graduating from college at the University of New Mexico, Kerr has been on a steep but steady incline to the top of elite running circles, dropping his times by a substantial margin season after season.
Bayern Munich campus director Jochen Sauer has seen the progress that the sometimes-flawed soccer system has made in the United States.
The present results blow away, the past…by a long shot per Sauer.
“The (soccer) education that young players get in the States is completely different now. The quality of the coaches is better. Combine this technical and tactical improvement with athletic ability, and these are the reasons some players are performing on the highest level,” Jochem Sauer, director of Bayern Munich’s youth academy told Fox Sports. “The level of MLS clubs has grown extremely since, say 2010. When MLS players came to train in Germany 10 years ago, the speed of play — how fast the ball goes from player to player, how quickly you have to anticipate what to do next — was too much for them. Now we’ll get FC Dallas players here on trial, and they need only two or three training sessions to adapt.”
With a nickname like “the stress hormone,” it’s no wonder cortisol is often talked about with the same disdain as moldy bread; something unwanted. When feelings of stress, acne, weight changes, or exhaustion persist, many people self-diagnose themselves with cortisol levels that are “too high.”
While it’s true that high cortisol levels can result in the aforementioned symptoms (among others), cortisol’s moniker is misleading. The truth is, we need cortisol. “Cortisol, which is one of the sex hormones, is essential for life,” Harvard-educated doctor and author of Women, Food, and Hormones ($23), Sara Gottfried, MD, says. Dr. Gottfried explains that, like pretty much everything else in life, balance is key when it comes to cortisol. Too-high levels aren’t good for health, but neither are too-low levels.
The description of current load monitoring practices may serve to highlight developmental needs for both the training ground, academia and related industries. While previous studies described these practices in elite men’s football, no study has provided an overview of load monitoring practices in elite women’s football. Given the clear organizational differences (i.e., professionalization and infrastructure) between men’s and women’s clubs, making inferences based on men’s data is not appropriate. Therefore, this study aims to provide a first overview of the current load monitoring practices in elite women’s football. Twenty-two elite European women’s football clubs participated in a closed online survey (40% response rate). The survey consisted of 33 questions using multiple choice or Likert scales. The questions covered three topics; type of data collected and collection purpose, analysis methods, and staff member involvement. All 22 clubs collected data related to different load monitoring purposes, with 18 (82%), 21 (95%), and 22 (100%) clubs collecting external load, internal load, and training outcome data, respectively. Most respondents indicated that their club use training models and take into account multiple indicators to analyse and interpret the data. While sports-science staff members were most involved in the monitoring process, coaching, and sports-medicine staff members also contributed to the discussion of the data. Overall, the results of this study show that most elite women’s clubs apply load monitoring practices extensively. Despite the organizational challenges compared to men’s football, these observations indicate that women’s clubs have a vested interest in load monitoring. We hope these findings encourage future developments within women’s football. [full text]
Visual perception in football (“soccer” in the U.S.) is increasingly becoming a key area of interest for researchers and practitioners. This exploratory case study investigated a sub-set of visual perception, namely visual exploratory scanning. The aim of this study was to examine the scanning of four elite football midfield players in an 11 vs. 11 real-game environment using mobile eye-tracking technology. More specifically, we measured the duration and information (number of teammates and opponents) of the players’ scanning behavior. The results showed that the players’ scanning duration was influenced by the ball context and the action undertaken with the ball at the moment of scan initiation. Furthermore, fixations were found in only 2.3% of the scans. Additionally, the results revealed that the stop point is the most information-rich part of a scan and that the players had more opponents than teammates inside their video frame during scans. Practical applications and further research recommendations are presented. [full text]
On a Sunday afternoon in June, Sophia Gorriaran celebrated her 16th birthday in a state 3,000 miles from where she lives in Rhode Island. The youngest athlete running in the 2021 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, Gorriaran was just four days away from one of the biggest 800-meter races of her life, on the biggest stage she had ever competed. While she’s already a world-class athlete as a rising junior in high school, and a star lacrosse player for Moses Brown School and the Mass Elite Lacrosse Club, Gorriaran is still just a kid.
“Whad’ya gonna wish for?” Steve Gorriaran asks his daughter. At an uncle’s house in Portland, Oregon, Gorriaran had just endured a melody of “Happy Birthday” bungled (with love) by a huddle of family and friends. Waving her hands over the cake—not wanting to spit on the cake because of COVID-19—she extinguished the embarrassment of attention on her as fast as the flames. And then she made a wish
This morning, Fitbit released its latest fitness-tracking wearable, the Fitbit Charge 5. It’s equipped with a host of health-related features and new premium content.
Dubbed its most advanced health-and-fitness tracker to date, the Charge 5 has tools for monitoring real-time activity, stress levels, heart health and sleep – all with a design that’s 10% slimmer and 200% brighter than its predecessor, the Charge 4.
The device’s standout feature is Fitbit Premium’s new Daily Readiness Score that takes into account users’ health metrics to guide them towards a workout geared to their body’s needs or to a day of rest. The new feature will soon be available in the Fitbit app for premium members with the Charge 5, as well as the Sense, Versa 3, Versa 2, Luxe and Inspire 2 devices.
Explore the latest in foot scanning technology from the company that helped pioneer the category! Hear Aetrex CEO Larry Schwartz discuss both the future of foot scanning technology and how his company developed the next generation of Albert, its state-of-the-art scanner. [audio, 20:39]
Aim To describe the periodic health evaluation (PHE) practices of the top performing National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
Methods We sent a survey to NOCs finishing in the top 8 for medal count at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games or 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games. The survey included four sections: (1) PHE staff composition and roles, (2) beliefs regarding the PHE, (3) a ranking of risk factors for future injury and (4) details on the elements of the PHE.
Results All 14 NOCs with top 8 finishes at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games or 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games completed the survey. NOCs included a median of seven staff specialties in the PHE, with physicians and physiotherapists having the highest level of involvement. There was agreement that PHEs are effective in identifying current health conditions (13/14) and that athletes should receive individualised action plans after their PHE (14/14), but less agreement (6/14) that PHEs can predict future injury. The practices of NOCs were diverse and often specific to the athlete population being tested, but always included the patient’s health history, laboratory studies, cardiovascular screening and assessments of movement capacity. The top three risk factors for future injury were thought to be previous injury, age and training experience.
Conclusions Among the top performing NOCs, the PHE is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary process aimed to identify existing conditions and provide baseline health and performance profiles in the event of future injury. Research linking PHEs to injury prevention is needed.
Walking past a corner bakery, you may find yourself drawn in by the fresh smell of sweets wafting from the front door. You’re not alone: The knowledge that humans make decisions based on their nose has led major brands like Cinnabon and Panera Bread to pump the scents of baked goods into their restaurants, leading to big spikes in sales.
But according to a new study, the food you ate just before your walk past the bakery may impact your likelihood of stopping in for a sweet treat – and not just because you’re full.
Scientists at Northwestern University found that people became less sensitive to food odors based on the meal they had eaten just before. So, if you were snacking on baked goods from a coworker before your walk, for example, you may be less likely to stop into that sweet-smelling bakery.
SB Nation, Stars and Stripes FC, Justin Moran from
… We talk a lot about depth, and it’s crucially important in these 3-game windows. We have the luxury of rotating talented players in and out of our squad because of our depth. The same might be partially true for Canada, but it is definitely not the case for Honduras or El Salvador. They will either need to play close to their best teams every game (at risk of wearing out their best players), or risk giving up an easy loss. All that to say, I think it’s more crucial to put our strongest XI on the field for game 1 than it is for game 3.
We talk a lot about depth, and it’s crucially important in these 3-game windows. We have the luxury of rotating talented players in and out of our squad because of our depth. The same might be partially true for Canada, but it is definitely not the case for Honduras or El Salvador. They will either need to play close to their best teams every game (at risk of wearing out their best players), or risk giving up an easy loss. All that to say, I think it’s more crucial to put our strongest XI on the field for game 1 than it is for game 3.
For years, they were picked on by offenses and ignored by general managers. But after watching Tampa Bay’s dominant duo last postseason, NFL teams are rediscovering the need for great linebackers.