… The problem is, we are naturally visually dominant, often to the point of fault, in our balance systems. Next time you walk down a street, notice how many people walk with the heads down.
They’re relying on their vision to give them a sense of the ground and where they are in space. This is compensatory, and it results from us first losing a relationship with the ground through our feet.
Our feet were never evolved to be in shoes, especially ones that don’t give us proper stability. Feet have tons of sensory receptors on them that allow us to feel where we are in space, and chances are, your shoe is acting as a sensory deprivation chamber for your feet.
Objective: To investigate the effects of mental fatigue on soccer-specific physical and technical performance in young players. Methods: Twelve under-14 (U14), twelve under-16 (U16) and twelve under-18 (U18) soccer players completed the two parts of the investigation. Part one assessed the soccer-specific physical performance using the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test, Level 1 (Yo-Yo IR1). Part two assessed the soccer-specific technical performance using the Loughborough Soccer Passing and Shooting Tests (LSPT, LSST). Each part was preceded by 30 min of Stroop task or 15 min of control task performed in a randomised and counterbalanced order. Results: Subjective ratings of mental fatigue were higher after the Stroop task compared to the control in U14, U16 and U18 in both parts. Mental fatigue significantly reduced Yo-Yo IR1 distance, alongside an increase in heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion, and this effect was moderated by age as older players showed greater declines in performance. Soccer-specific technical performance was negatively affected by mental fatigue condition only in U18 in the LSPT..
This study aimed to: 1) understand how the calculation of step-averaged ratio of forces (RF; horizontal component as a percentage of total ground reaction force (GRF) magnitude) affects the RF-horizontal velocity (vH) profile; 2) establish the importance of RF to early acceleration (i.e. up to the end of step 4) performance; 3) assess how well the RF-vH profile obtained from a simple macroscopic model over the entire acceleration phase corresponds to the true external kinetics during just early acceleration. Twenty-four trained male sprinters completed four maximal effort 60 m sprints (two standing starts, two block starts), and GRFs from the block exit/initial push off and first 50 m on the track were analysed. The use of step-averaged force data to obtain step-averaged RF consistently led to a greater (systematic bias: +8.6 to +9.2%) theoretical maximal RF (RF0) and a steeper (systematic bias = -1.7%∙s/m) rate of decline in RF (DRF) than the use of instantaneous RF data, and the use of step-averaged force data was proposed as yielding values with a more appropriate assessment of the “mechanical effectiveness” over the entire step. Average RF during early acceleration was of greater relative importance for early acceleration performance than average resultant GRF magnitude during early acceleration, particularly from block starts (linear regression standardised β-coefficient for average RF = 0.82, for resultant GRF magnitude = 0.10). Direct measures of DRF and RF0 obtained from the block exit/initial push off and first four steps combined to explain 93-95% of the variance in early acceleration performance, with RF0 being of greater relative importance for performance than DRF. There was a near perfect correlation (r = 0.94 to 0.95) between the macroscopic modelled RFMAX value (RF at 0.3 s based on a linear fit to modelled RF-vH from 0.3 s onwards) and early acceleration performance. Whilst the ability to achieve high levels of resultant GRF magnitude cannot be ignored, particularly for standing starts, athletes should be encouraged to achieve a high initial ratio of forces during early acceleration before then focussing on arresting the decline in RF as the early acceleration phase progresses. Practitioners can use RFMAX from a simple macroscopic model fitted to the entire acceleration phase in field-based testing to provide a highly appropriate assessment of early acceleration performance. [full text]
The cardiac benefits of exercise have been recognized for centuries. Studies have undisputedly shown that regular exercise is beneficial for the cardiovascular system in young, old, healthy and diseased populations. For these reasons, physical activity has been recommended worldwide for cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment. Although the benefits of exercise are clear, understanding of the molecular triggers that orchestrate these effects remains incomplete and has been a topic of intense research in recent years. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the cardiac effects of physical activity, beginning with a brief history of exercise in cardiovascular medicine and then discussing seminal work on the physiological effects of exercise in healthy, diseased and aged hearts. Later, we revisit pioneering work on the molecular mechanisms underlying the cardiac benefits of exercise, and we conclude with our view on the translational potential of this knowledge as a powerful platform for cardiovascular disease drug discovery. [full text]
Sleep serves disparate functions, most notably neural repair, metabolite clearance and circuit reorganization. Yet the relative importance remains hotly debated. Here, we create a novel mechanistic framework for understanding and predicting how sleep changes during ontogeny and across phylogeny. We use this theory to quantitatively distinguish between sleep used for neural reorganization versus repair. Our findings reveal an abrupt transition, between 2 and 3 years of age in humans. Specifically, our results show that differences in sleep across phylogeny and during late ontogeny (after 2 or 3 years in humans) are primarily due to sleep functioning for repair or clearance, while changes in sleep during early ontogeny (before 2 or 3 years) primarily support neural reorganization and learning. Moreover, our analysis shows that neuroplastic reorganization occurs primarily in REM sleep but not in NREM. This developmental transition suggests a complex interplay between developmental and evolutionary constraints on sleep.
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a wireless smart suit for athletes that is powered by electromagnetic signals from a smartphone.
The battery-free suit is lightweight and can be used outdoors, making it possible to track athletic performance with real-time physiological data from multiple sensors.
Every football player in the SEC will wear the small, lightweight device also used in the NFL to help with COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, the conference announced Tuesday.
The devices, which are produced by a company called KINEXON, are called SafeTags and are approximately the size of a watch face, according to a news release. They can be worn as a wristband or on a lanyard, or can be built into equipment for use on field in practices and games.
The SafeTags can also be used to help enforce physical distancing regulations by flashing a red warning light when people are within 6 feet of each other.
Before the NFL made an official announcement on how they would commence the 2020 season, Jeff Kearney, Gatorade’s Global Head of Sports Marketing, begin internal discussions with his team on how they could get in front of helping keep things safe with the products they provide. They then began discussions with the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society (PFATS) on solutions before the NFL reached out in May to see what the brand had learned from its partnerships with other leagues and what they could adapt.
Without the use of a bubble environment, the league needed to implement innovative safety concepts across the board to help ensure the safety of team staff and players. One critical component for both in-game situations and practice was creating new protocols on the sidelines.
“Everything that we do is built from insight from the athletes or practitioner,” said Kearney. “The solutions we came to is directly from working hand in hand with the NFL and the athletic trainers to figure out what is going to work with their specific settings.”
As gym lovers and sports enthusiasts head back to their favorite activities, one of the adjustments they have faced is exercising with a facemask. Swirling around this much desired pandemic reopening has been the controversy over how safe it is to work out with something covering the nose and mouth.
Although they aren’t going to resolve the debate with a simple mini-experiment, a group of students in an advanced kinesiology class set out this fall to find out for themselves what happens during a workout with and without a face covering.
The students in Pete Bodary’s Scientific Inquiry Using Wearable Technology class represent one of four groups that came to campus to experience the lab-based course that uses the latest technology to study how movement and function impact health.
… “Chef Mike” joined LSU as the executive chef of the Performance Nutrition Center just before the ribbon cutting of the renovated Football Operations Center, which features a state-of-the-art dining hall for student athletes. Working in partnership with another newcomer, registered dietitian and director of football nutrition Zach Bennett, Johnson is passionate about feeding athletes. It is exponentially more than serving three meals a day.
“It’s a balance,” Johnson says. “Provide exceptionally nutritious foods that are comfortable for them. Good tasting with healthier results. Three times a day we have an opportunity for our team to be creative. I love coming to work every day. We have a committed staff who want to support the health of the students. It speaks volumes to the culture of LSU.”
There’s a lot of hype around intermittent fasting but not a lot of decisive data. Find out what recent scientific studies say about the potential benefits.
… What we do know with certainty is that the regular season — at 23 games, the shortest in MLS history — will be made up of three distinct segments: the first two games, which was followed by a four-month COVID-19 suspension in play; the Quarantine Cup, Major League Soccer’s 24-team, single-venue tournament in Florida, in which each team played three games that will count in the standings; and the league’s 18-game season reboot in home markets and empty stadiums, a sprint to the finish that will see teams play at least 12 games in 52 days to finish the schedule by Nov. 8.
“This season,” Galaxy coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said “is a little different.”
… “Monte is one of the NBA’s top basketball minds… it is my pleasure to welcome Monte and his family to Sacramento,” said Ranadivé.
After originally being hired as a developer and programmer for the Houston Rockets in 2007, McNair earned a promotion to become the Director of Basketball Operations in 2013 and then took another leap to Vice President of Basketball Operations just two years later.
“I was a computer science major, so I come more from the programming side; that’s how I got my start,” said McNair to The Dream Shake in 2016. “ [Now], a lot focuses on the traditional front office side: draft, free agency. We also work on the coaching staff and the salary cap.”
Dr Paul Balsom, Leicester City and the Swedish national team head of performance innovation, tells i that players are hungrier than ever to learn the data of their bodies.