Applied Sports Science newsletter – November 13, 2019

It has been established by now that, for the Warriors, the primary purpose of this season is to create a launching pad for next season, about resetting the foundation from which something special can be built.

What better way to get a head start on 2020-21 than to have Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson on the court for the final weeks of this season?

Curry is all for it, and you can bet Thompson is too.

Objectives

Bedtime social media use is associated with poor sleep during adolescence, which in turn contributes to poor mental health, impaired daytime functioning and lower academic achievement. However, the underlying drivers for these bedtime social media habits remain understudied. This study adds an adolescent perspective on motivations for bedtime social media use and perceived impact on sleep.
Methods

Adolescents aged 11–17 years (n = 24) participated in focus group discussions exploring their experiences of using social media, particularly at night. Inductive reflexive thematic analysis produced themes that captured underlying drivers for social media use and associated impact on sleep.
Results

Our analyses produced two overarching themes: Missing Out and Norms & Expectations. Adolescents’ nighttime social media use was driven by concerns over negative consequences for real-world relationships if they disconnected (often reporting delayed bedtimes, insufficient sleep and daytime tiredness). These concerns included the risk of offline peer exclusion from missing out on online interactions, and the fear of social disapproval from violating norms around online availability and prompt responses.
Conclusions

These findings offer novel insight into why adolescents may choose to prioritize social media over sleep. Researchers and practitioners can respond to the evolving needs of today’s adolescents by approaching social media use not as a technology-based activity, but as an embedded social experience underpinned by the same concerns as offline interactions. [full text]

Over the expanse of evolutionary history, humans, and predecessor Homo species, ran to survive. This legacy is reflected in many deeply and irrevocably embedded neurological and biological design features, features which shape how we run, yet were themselves shaped by running.

Smoothness is a widely recognised feature of healthy, proficient movement. Nevertheless, although the term ‘smoothness’ is commonly used to describe skilled athletic movement within practical sporting contexts, it is rarely specifically defined, is rarely quantified and remains barely explored experimentally. Elsewhere, however, within various health-related and neuro-physiological domains, many manifestations of movement smoothness have been extensively investigated. Within this literature, smoothness is considered a reflection of a healthy central nervous system (CNS) and is implicitly associated with practiced coordinated proficiency; ‘non-smooth’ movement, in contrast, is considered a consequence of pathological, un-practiced or otherwise inhibited motor control.

Despite the ubiquity of running across human cultures, however, and the apparent importance of smoothness as a fundamental feature of healthy movement control, to date, no theoretical framework linking the phenomenon of movement smoothness to running proficiency has been proposed. Such a framework could, however, provide a novel lens through which to contextualise the deep underlying nature of coordinated running control. Here, we consider the relevant evidence and suggest how running smoothness may integrate with other related concepts such as complexity, entropy and variability. Finally, we suggest that these insights may provide new means of coherently conceptualising running coordination, may guide future research directions, and may productively inform practical coaching philosophies. [full text]

People exposed to a lifetime of psychosocial adversity may have an impaired ability to produce the dopamine levels needed for coping with acutely stressful situations.

These findings, published today in eLife, may help explain why long-term exposure to psychological trauma and abuse increases the risk of mental illness and addiction.

“We already know that chronic psychosocial adversity can induce vulnerability to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression,” explains lead author Dr Michael Bloomfield, Excellence Fellow and leader of the Translational Psychiatry Research Group at University College London, UK. “What we’re missing is a precise mechanistic understanding of how this risk is increased.”

MMyriad factors affect how you relate to colleagues. There are the personalities in the office, the kind of boss you have and the company culture more broadly. However, if you find yourself constantly falling into the same unhelpful patterns – perhaps you struggle to accept negative feedback, avoid asking others for help or you fear failing – there could be another less obvious source to your problems.

The nature of your parents’ relationship, and especially whether they solved problems amicably and constructively or resorted to conflict, could have shaped your way of relating to others. In the psychological jargon, if your parents were forever bickering, or worse, they might have shaped your ‘attachment style’. This could cast a cloud over your ability to form healthy relationships at work.

Background: Whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) gained increasing interest in sports within recent years. However, few intervention studies have examined the effects of WB-EMS on trained subjects in comparison to conventional strength training.

Objective: The aim of the present mini-meta-analysis of 5 recently conducted and published randomized controlled WB-EMS trails of our work group was to evaluate potentially favorable effects of WB-EMS in comparison to conventional strength training.

Methods: We included parameter of selected leg muscle’s strength and power as well as sprint and jump performance. All subjects were moderately trained athletes [>2 training sessions/week, >2 years of experience in strength training; experimental group (n = 58): 21.5 ± 3.3 y; 178 ± 8 cm; 74.0 ± 11 kg; control group (n = 54): 21.0 ± 2.3 y; 179.0 ± 9 cm; 72.6 ± 10 kg]. The following WB-EMS protocols were applied to the experimental group (EG): 2 WB-EMS sessions/week, bipolar current superimposed to dynamic exercises, 85 Hz, 350 μs, 70% of the individual pain threshold amperage. The control groups (CG) underwent the same training protocols without WB-EMS, but with external resistance.

Results: Five extremely homogenous studies (all studies revealed an I2 = 0%) with 112 subjects in total were analyzed with respect to lower limb strength and power in leg curl, leg extension and leg press machines, sprint—and jump performance. Negligible effects in favor of WB-EMS were found for Fmax of leg muscle groups [SMD: 0.11 (90% CI: −0.08, 0.33), p = 0.73, I2 = 0%] and for CMJ [SMD: 0.01 (90% CI: −0.34, 0.33), p = 0.81, I2 = 0%]. Small effects, were found for linear sprint [SMD: 0.22 (90% CI: −0.15, 0.60), p = 0.77, I2 = 0%] in favor of the EMS-group compared to CON.

Conclusion: We conclude that WB-EMS is a feasible complementary training stimulus for performance enhancement. However, additional effects on strength and power indices seem to be limited and sprint and jump-performance appear to be benefiting only slightly. Longer training periods and more frequent application times and a slightly larger stimulus could be investigated in larger samples to further elucidate beneficial effects of WB-EMS on performance parameters in athletes.

… For clinicians, finding a patient’s pulse and respiration rate may be more hands-off in the future. Philips innovators are now looking to employ cameras and software get these vitals.

“The red box, centered around the face, looks for very small changes in the color of the skin. So those are our heartbeat and appear all over body and anywhere we have skin,” Kees van Zon, principal scientist and group leader at Philips Research, told MobiHealthNews. “It is easy to detect. We can’t see those changes with the human eye but a camera and software can actually detect that.”

The technology is also able to use the camera and AI to analyze a patient’s breathing.

Background

The recent development of wearable devices has enabled easy and continuous measurement of heart rate (HR). Exercise intensity can be calculated from HR with indices such as percent HR reserve (%HRR); however, this requires an accurate measurement of resting HR, which can be time-consuming. The use of HR during sleep may be a substitute that considers the calibration-less measurement of %HRR. This study examined the validity of %HRR on resting HR during sleep in comparison to percent oxygen consumption reserve (%VO2R) as a gold standard. Additionally, a 24/7%HRR measurement using this method is demonstrated.
Methods

Twelve healthy adults aged 29 ± 5 years underwent treadmill testing using the Bruce protocol and a 6-min walk test (6MWT). The %VO2R during each test was calculated according to a standard protocol. The %HRR during each exercise test was calculated either from resting HR in a sitting position (%HRRsitting), when lying awake (%HRRlying), or during sleep (%HRRsleeping). Differences between %VO2R and %HRR values were examined using Bland-Altman plots. A 180-day, 24/7%HRR measurement with three healthy adults was also conducted. The %HRR values during working days and holidays were compared.
Results

In the treadmill testing, the mean difference between %VO2R and %HRRsleeping was 1.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], − 0.2 to 3.6%). The %HRRsitting and %HRRlying values were 10.8% (95% CI, 8.8 to 12.7%) and 7.7% (95% CI, 5.4 to 9.9%), respectively. In the 6MWT, mean differences between %VO2R and %HRRsitting, %HRRlying and %HRRsleeping were 12.7% (95% CI, 10.0 to 15.5%), 7.0% (95% CI, 4.0 to 10.0%) and − 2.9% (95% CI, − 5.0% to − 0.7%), respectively. The 180-day, 24/7%HRR measurement presented significant differences in %HRR patterns between working days and holidays in all three participants.
Conclusions

The results suggest %HRRsleeping is valid in comparison to %VO2R. The results may encourage a calibration-less, 24/7 measurement model of exercise intensity using wearable devices. [full text]

… Tommy John was a pitcher for the New York Yankees who suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, but was able to continue his career after a successful surgery.

Now his son, Dr. Tommy John III, who runs the Dr. Tommy John Performance and Healing Center, is out to try to put an end to that surgery, and stem the rising tide of youth sports injuries, with the book “Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent’s Survival Guide”

This post describes our methodology and process for creating college basketball preseason rankings for all 353 teams in Division I men’s basketball.

As one would expect from TeamRankings, our college basketball preseason rankings are driven by stats and modeling, rather than film study or media scouting reports.

… Allegations of cheating by the Astros have chased the organization for years, going back to its World Series victory in 2017 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Opponents playing at Houston’s Minute Maid Park are on constant lookout for signs of subterfuge, sources from multiple teams told ESPN. Before the World Series this year, members of the Washington Nationals organization received warnings from others around the game to beware of everything from flashing lights to whistling to a person relaying signs from the train that runs above left field, sources told ESPN.

The line between truth and fiction with the Astros has long been blurry, as the organization’s reputation and success have made it a target for accusations of fanciful, complicated and unconfirmed methods of cheating. Fiers joining three unnamed sources in alleging the use of the video feed is the strongest indication yet that Houston went beyond the accepted sign-stealing practice of not using technology to aid it.

The stars of track and field need a powerful and independent union to protect them from abuse from the sportswear giant and the mismanagement of the governing body

… “I understand where Michael (Jordan) is coming from, you know, we pay you to play. We pay you to work. But we actually pay you to win championships, and how that plays out is more important. And I think what people don’t realize is, at least the way we do it — and we haven’t been to the playoffs in a couple of years — load management is you’re preparing yourself to increase your load at the end of the year as you go into the playoffs.

“When you’re minutes per game, regardless of how many games you play, goes from 35 to 38 or 42, you have to be able to handle that. Load management also entails the flip side of, OK, now that you’ve missed these games, are you ready for the playoffs? Like, how many minutes would Kawhi (Leonard) been able to play in the playoffs had he not had load management?”

… One way or another, science-driven changes to the NBA schedule are coming. Many general assessments from things like wearable electronics assessing blood values, brain scans, and sleep studies tell us that elite athletes are overworked. Years ago, a study showed that players in top European soccer leagues have six times the injury rate if they play two games instead of one per week. The study might not be the most relevant to the NBA—it’s a different sport—but it’s a home run that the schedule itself causes injuries. Tired bodies don’t have the same strength, and they are more likely to move inefficiently.

Training and competition loads have emerged as modifiable composite risk factors of non‐contact injury. Hamstring strains are the most common injuries in football with substantial burden on the individual player and club. Nevertheless, robust evidence of a consistent load‐hamstring injury relationship in professional football is lacking. Using available data from the Qatar Stars League over three competitive seasons, this study investigated the separate and combined effects of perceived exertion and session duration on hamstring injury occurrence in a sample of 30 outfield football players. Load variables were calculated into 7‐day, 14‐day, 21‐day, 28‐day periods of data, and week‐to‐week changes for average ratings of perceived exertion (RPE; au) score and session‐RPE (s‐RPE; session‐duration X score), plus the cumulative training and match minutes and s‐RPE, respectively. Conditional logistic regression models estimated load‐injury relationships per 2‐within‐subject standard deviation increments in each candidate variable. Associations were declared practically important based on the location of the confidence interval in relation to thresholds of 0.90 and 1.11 defining small beneficial and harmful effects, respectively. The uncertainty for the corrected odds ratios show that typically high within‐subject increments in each candidate variable were not practically important for training‐ and match‐related hamstring injury (95% confidence intervals range: 0.85 to 1.16). We found limited exploratory evidence regarding the value of perceived exertion and session duration as aetiological factors of hamstring injury in Middle‐East professional football. Monitoring remains valuable to inform player load management strategies, but our exploratory findings suggest its role for type‐specific injury risk determination appears empirically unsupported.