As far as Arian Foster is concerned, the NFL adage that a running back can’t play past age 30 is, in not so many words, bullshit. Exhibit A that he presents is Curtis Martin, who in 2004 led the league in rushing at the age of 31. Exhibit B is to be a grown-up and think for yourself.
“They throw those stats at you just because they look sexy when you’re trying to fit an agenda,” Foster says of the common perception that running backs are done by age 30. “As soon as you get into the NFL they’re always going to tell you what you can’t do. One of them is being a 30-year-old running back. There’s always outliers. I believe myself to be an outlier.”
… [Pierre] Barrieu finds himself wondering what’s going on when he reads U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s remarks lately. When asked about the U.S.’s struggles in friendlies — the U.S. has won just once in nine games since the World Cup victory over Ghana — Klinsmann cited a missing culture of fitness in the team to reporters:
“In many different ways, [the results are] explainable. The tension drops after the World Cup. I think all of the teams go through that, but I think the more experienced teams, the teams that have far more peer pressure in their environment, they maybe allow themselves to drop 10 or 20 percent and not 30 or 50 percent. That is the difference to what we deal with [in] the aftermath of the World Cup in Brazil.”
Recent laboratory studies have suggested that heart rate variability (HRV) may be an appropriate criterion for training load (TL) quantification. The aim of this study was to validate a novel HRV index that may be used to assess TL in field conditions. Eleven well-trained long-distance male runners performed four exercises of different duration and intensity. TL was evaluated using Foster and Banister methods. In addition, HRV measurements were performed 5 minutes before exercise and 5 and 30 minutes after exercise. We calculated HRV index (TLHRV) based on the ratio between HRV decrease during exercise and HRV increase during recovery. HRV decrease during exercise was strongly correlated with exercise intensity (R = −0.70; p < 0.01) but not with exercise duration or training volume. TLHRV index was correlated with Foster (R = 0.61; p = 0.01) and Banister (R = 0.57; p = 0.01) methods. This study confirms that HRV changes during exercise and recovery phase are affected by both intensity and physiological impact of the exercise. Since the TLHRV formula takes into account the disturbance and the return to homeostatic balance induced by exercise, this new method provides an objective and rational TL index. However, some simplification of the protocol measurement could be envisaged for field use.
Harvard Business Review, Ozlem Ayduk and Ethan Kross from
… We found that cueing people to reflect on intense emotional experiences using their names and non-first-person pronouns such as “you” or “he” or “she” consistently helped them control their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
For example, in one study we found that participants who silently referred to themselves in the second or third person or used their own names while preparing for a five-minute speech were calmer and more confident and performed better on the task than those who referred to themselves using “I” or “me.”
In the era of personalized medicine, interindividual differences in the magnitude of response to an exercise training program (subject-by-training interaction; “individual response”) have received increasing scientific interest. However, standard approaches for quantification and prediction remain to be established, probably due to the specific considerations associated with interactive effects, in particular on the individual level, as compared to the prevailing investigation of main effects. Regarding the quantification of subject-by-training interaction in terms of variance components, confounding sources of variability have to be considered. Clearly, measurement error limits the accuracy of response estimates and thereby contributes to variation. This problem is of particular importance for analyses on the individual level, because a low signal-to-noise ratio may not be compensated by increasing sample size (1 case). Moreover, within-subject variation in training efficacy may contribute to gross response variability. This largely unstudied source of variation may not be disclosed by comparison to a control group but calls for repeated interventions. A second critical point concerns the prediction of response. There is little doubt that exercise training response is influenced by a multitude of determinants. Moreover, indications of interaction between influencing factors of training efficacy lead to the hypothesis that optimal predictive accuracy may be attained using an interactive rather than additive approach. Taken together, aiming at conclusive inference and optimal predictive accuracy in the investigation of subject-by-training interaction entails specific requirements which are deducibly based on statistical principles but beset with many practical difficulties. Therefore, pragmatic alternatives are warranted.
The purpose of this study was to determine the responses of testosterone and cortisol, with special reference to playing positions, playing time (PT), and phase of the season. We performed a follow-up study during 4 consecutive seasons to investigate the effects of PT, positional role, and phase of the season on anabolic-catabolic biomarkers (plasma total testosterone -TT- and cortisol -C-) on 20 professional male basketball players (27.0 ± 4.2 years; 24.4 ± 1.2 kg·m−2). First blood samples were collected right after the off-season period and considered as baseline. Samples were taken periodically every 4–6 weeks, always after a 24- to 36-hour break after the last game played. Statistical procedures were nonparametric mainly. Hormonal status was playing position-dependent, power forward (PF) showed the lowest TT values (median ± interquartile range [IQR]; PF: 18.1 ± 4.9; nmol·L−1), and small forwards showed the highest ones of cortisol (0.55 ± 0.118 μmol·L−1). Players who played between 13 and 25 minutes per game showed the highest values of TT (22.8 ± 6.9 nmol·L−1) and TT/C (47.1 ± 21.2). March and April showed the most catabolic or stressed hormonal state (low TT/C values and high ones of cortisol) and that is necessary to take into account according to PT (>25-minute per game) and specific playing position. Monitoring plasma TT and cortisol is recommended to prevent excessive stress caused by professional basketball season requirements.
Speaking about the restructuring of German youth football in the last 15 years, Schott revealed the reasons why German football is flourishing today, and why they develop world class football players almost on a yearly basis.
It all started after Euro 2000 when Germany left the tournament in the Group Stage, with a squad consisting of only two players who were 23 years of age or younger (Sebastian Deisler, 20 and Michael Ballack, 23), and only 3 players were 25 or younger, whereas 9 players in total were 30 or older, the oldest being 39 (Lothar Matthäus).
People are more likely to gamble after having their memories primed, an international team of researchers has found.
When reminded, or primed, of past winning outcomes as part of a controlled test, people were over 15% more likely to gamble and select the risky option. Surprisingly, being reminded of past losing outcomes did not change their gambling behaviour.
Led by the University of Warwick, the researchers demonstrated that the risky decisions people make are influenced by triggering them to remember the times they had previously won.
In recent years, researchers at companies including Google and Facebook have made impressive breakthroughs in training software to understand what’s going on in images, thanks to a technique known as deep learning. Now a startup called Clarifai is offering a service that uses deep learning to understand video.
The company says its software can rapidly analyze video clips to recognize 10,000 different objects or types of scene. In a demo given last week at a conference on deep learning, Clarifai’s cofounder and CEO Matthew Zeiler uploaded a clip that included footage of a varied alpine landscape. The software created a timeline with graph lines summarizing when different objects or types of scene were detected. It showed exactly when “snow” and “mountains” occurred individually and together. The software can analyze video faster than a human could watch it; in the demonstration, the 3.5 minute clip was processed in just 10 seconds.
By flying like Superman in Jeremy Bailenson’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was convinced that virtual reality could enhance the game for fans and players.
Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy from
Primary anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programs effectively reduce ACL injury risk on the short term. Despite these programs ACL injury incidence is still high, making it imperative that we continue to improve current prevention strategies. A potential limitation of current ACL injury prevention training may be a lack in the transfer of conscious, optimal movement strategies rehearsed during training sessions to automatic movements required for athletic activities and unanticipated events on the field. Instructional strategies with an internal attentional focus have traditionally been utilized, but may not be optimal for the acquisition of the control of complex motor skills required for sports. Conversely, external focus instructional strategies may enhance skill acquisition more efficiently and increase the transfer of improved motor skills to sports activities. The current manuscript will present insights gained from the motor learning domain that may enhance neuromuscular training programs via improved skill development and increased retention and transfer to sports activities, ultimately potentially leading to reduced ACL injury incidence long term.
Testosterone, cortisol and their ratios may be indicators of anabolic status, but technical issues surrounding blood sampling has limited wider application. The advent of salivary testosterone (sal-T) analysis simplified sample acquisition, resulting in a subsequent rapid increase in the number of published research articles. OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this study was to undertake a meta-analysis to determine the effect of acute exercise bouts on post exercise sal-T and salivary cortisol (sal-C) concentrations and their ratio (sal-T:C). DATA SOURCES:
Relevant databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct and SPORTDiscus were searched up to and including 31 December 2013 for the term ‘saliva AND testosterone AND exercise’. STUDY SELECTION:
Studies (n = 21) selected from the 933 identified included randomised controlled trials (RCTs; n = 2), uncontrolled trials (UCTs; n = 18) and control trials (CTs; n = 1), all of which had an exercise component characterised as either aerobic, resistance or power training, each with acute sal-T and sal-C measurement obtained within 30 min of exercise bout completion. STUDY APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS METHODS:
A meta-analysis was conducted on change in sal-T, sal-C and the sal-T:C ratio following exercise using standard difference in means (SDM) and a random effects model. RESULTS:
For aerobic, resistance and power exercise, the overall SDMs for sal-T were 0.891, 1.061 and 0.509, respectively; for sal-C, the SDMs were 3.041, 0.773 and 1.200, respectively. For sal-T:C, the SDMs were -2.014, 0.027 and -0.968, respectively. RCTs, UCTs and CTs were separated by subgroup analysis. There were significant differences in overall weighted SDM values for sal-T between RCTs, UCTs and CTs within exercise modes. When examining aerobic exercise interventions, a quantitative interaction of study design was observed. RCTs resulted in a greater SDM than UCTs (1.337 vs. 0.446). Power interventions displayed a qualitative interaction with study design. UCTs where baseline measures were obtained 24 h before exercise had an SDM of -1.128, whereas UCTs where baseline was determined immediately prior to exercise had an SDM of 0.486. The single CT trial had an SDM of 2.260. Resistance exercise interventions were primarily UCTs; however, an observed influence of baseline sampling time whereby immediately pre- and 24 h pre-exercise resulted in differing SDMs. The sole resistance exercise RCTs resulted in the greatest SDM (2.500). CONCLUSION:
The current body of evidence regarding acute responses of sal-T to exercise is weak. This meta-analysis identifies varying exercise-dependent effect sizes. Each appear to be greatly influenced by study design and sample timing. There is a need for more RCTs and a standardised methodology for the measurement of salivary hormones in order to better determine the effect of exercise modality.
Christopher Kaeding, the executive director of Ohio State’s Sports Medicine, was recently the first surgeon in the U.S. to implant a new plastic meniscus device for patients suffering from persistent knee pain because of meniscus injury. That device could help patients avoid knee replacement years later.
The “NUsurface” implant, manufactured by Active Implants, a Tennessee-based company specializing in orthopaedic implants, is currently being tested in an FDA-approved multicenter, randomized, control trial at seven locations in the U.S., including the Wexner Medical Center. The surgery was performed in Columbus on Jan. 21.
A new technique allows neuroscientists to peer into the brains of live mice and monitor the molecular signatures of learning and memory. With the method, researchers can watch in real time the strengthening and weakening of connections in neural circuits to understand how the brain learns new behaviors or how disease disrupts memory formation.