Body Water Status and Short-term Maximal Power Output during a Multistage Road Bicycle Race (Giro d'Italia 2014)

Ultra-Cycling- Past, Present, Future: A Narrative Review

BACKGROUND

Ultra-endurance events are gaining popularity in multiple exercise disciplines, including cycling. With increasing numbers of ultra-cycling events, aspects influencing participation and performance are of interest to the cycling community.

MAIN BODY

The aim of this narrative review was, therefore, to assess the types of races offered, the characteristics of the cyclists, the fluid and energy balance during the race, the body mass changes after the race, and the parameters that may enhance performance based on existing literature. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar using the search terms 'ultracycling', 'ultra cycling', 'ultra-cycling', 'ultra-endurance biking', 'ultra-bikers' and 'prolonged cycling'. The search yielded 948 results, of which 111 were relevant for this review. The studies were classified according to their research focus and the results were summarized. The results demonstrated changes in physiological parameters, immunological and oxidative processes, as well as in fluid and energy balance. While the individual race with the most published studies was the Race Across America, most races were conducted in Europe, and a trend for an increase in European participants in international races was observed. Performance seems to be affected by characteristics such as age and sex but not by anthropometric parameters such as skin fold thickness. The optimum age for the top performance was around 40 years. Most participants in ultra-cycling events were male, but the number of female athletes has been increasing over the past years. Female athletes are understudied due to their later entry and less prominent participation in ultra-cycling races. A post-race energy deficit after ultra-cycling events was observed.

CONCLUSION

Future studies need to investigate the causes for the observed optimum race age around 40 years of age as well as the optimum nutritional supply to close the observed energy gap under consideration of the individual race lengths and conditions. Another research gap to be filled by future studies is the development of strategies to tackle inflammatory processes during the race that may persist in the post-race period.

Regional Bioelectrical Phase Angle Is More Informative than Whole-Body Phase Angle for Monitoring Neuromuscular Performance: A Pilot Study in Elite Young Soccer Players

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between regional and total phase angle (PhA) with lower-body neuromuscular performance in young elite soccer players. Methods: Sixteen elite male soccer players (14.3 ± 1.0 years) participated in this study. Lower (LPhA)- and upper (UPhA)-hemisome PhA together with whole-body PhA (WBPhA) were measured by a bioelectrical-impedance analysis (BIA), while appendicular arm and leg lean soft tissue (ALST and LLST, respectively) were estimated. Urine osmolarity (UOsm) and urine-specific gravity (USG) were also considered. Sprints over 10 m and 20 m and countermovement jump (CMJ) tests were employed to evaluate neuromuscular performance. Results: LPhA (p = 0.003) and UOsm (p = 0.012) explained 62% of the variance in the 10 m sprint. UOsm (p = 0.001) and both LPhA (p < 0.001) and WBPhA (p = 0.024) explained 81% of the total variance in the 20 m sprint. The CMJ height was affected by LPhA (p < 0.001) and UOsm (p = 0.024), which overall explained 68% of its variance (p < 0.05), while 93% of the CMJ power variance was explained by LPhA (p < 0.001), ALST (p < 0.001), and WBPhA (p = 0.011). Conclusions: Regional PhA is a relevant and non-invasive tool to monitor lower-body neuromuscular performance in elite youth soccer. Specifically, LPhA may be favored over WBPhA as more informative.

Phase Angle Is Related to 10 m and 30 m Sprint Time and Repeated-Sprint Ability in Young Male Soccer Players

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between phase angle (PhA) and bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) and components of physical performance in male youth soccer players.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional.

METHODS

Sixty-two players from two professional soccer academies were recruited. Electrical bioimpedance was used to obtain the PhA and BIVA. Body fat (BF) and lean soft tissue mass (LSTM) were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. All players completed physical tests including the standing long jump (SLJ), Carminatti's test (peak speed at the end of the test, PST-CAR), 10 m and 30 m straight-line sprints, and repeated-sprint ability (RSA) test (RSAbest and RSAmean times).

RESULTS

Adjusting for chronological age, BF, and LSTM, multiple regression analysis outputs showed that PhA remained inversely related to RSAmean (β = -0.362; p < 0.001), RSAbest (β = -0.239; p = 0.020), 10 m (β = -0.379; p = 0.012), and 30 m (β = -0.438; p < 0.001) sprint times, while the association with PST-CAR and SLJ performance were statistically non-significant. In addition, BIVA showed that differences in confidence ellipses were found between athletes in the reference population and the study sample (p < 0.05). The tolerance ellipses indicated that the athletes in the present study had more total body water (TCW) and lower proportions of intracellular water (ICW) to extracellular water (ECW). The reference population had more TCW and ICW/ECW.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that young soccer players with higher PhA values, indicating better cell integrity and functionality, have better performance in typical anaerobic running activities, such as sprinting speed and RSA performance, adjusted to age and body composition characteristics.

New Frontiers of Body Composition in Sport

The body composition phenotype of an athlete displays the complex interaction among genotype, physiological and metabolic demands of a sport, diet, and physical training. Observational studies dominate the literature and describe the sport-specific physique characteristics (size, shape, and composition) of adult athletes by gender and levels of competition. Limited data reveal how body composition measurements can benefit an athlete. Thus, the objective is to identify purposeful measurements of body composition, notably fat and lean muscle masses, and determine their impact on the health and performance of athletes. Areas of interest include relationships among total and regional body composition measurements, muscle function, sport-specific performance, risk of injury, return to sport after injury, and identification of activity-induced fluid shifts. Discussion includes the application of specific uses of dual X-ray absorptiometry and bioelectrical impedance including an emphasis on the need to minimize measurement errors and standardize protocols, and highlights opportunities for future research. This focus on functional body composition can benefit the health and optimize the performance of an athlete.

Bioelectrical impedance phase angle in sport: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Phase angle (PhA) is a raw BIA variable that has been gaining attention in recent years because it is supposed to be an index of the ratio between extracellular and intracellular water, body cell mass, and cellular integrity. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the variability of PhA between different sports and its relationships with sport performance. Additionally, we investigated whether PhA depends on gender or age, and analyzed the differences between athletes and controls.

METHODS

A systematic research using PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science up to June 2019 was performed. Selection criteria included studies on subjects who practice sports in planned and continuous modality at competitive or elite level.

RESULTS

Thirty-five papers met the inclusion criteria (twenty-one cross-sectional data, fourteen longitudinal data). A few but convincing studies have shown that mean PhA is higher in athletes vs. controls. PhA increases with age and is likely to be higher in male than female athletes. A large variability in PhA is observed for the same sport, while it is still uncertain to what extent PhA differs between various sports. There are no clear relationships of PhA with sport performance or training/untraining.

CONCLUSION

It is still to be defined to what extent PhA varies between different sports and changes with training/untraining. It can be argued that for a given sport much more data should be collected in a systematic way and for a period of time appropriate in order to determine changes and trends. This is even more crucial in the case of intervention studies.

Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) in sport and exercise: Systematic review and future perspectives

Background

Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) is a general concept that includes all methodologies used in the analysis of the bioelectrical vector, whereas the "classic" BIVA is a patented methodology included among these methods of analysis. Once this was clarified, the systematic review of the literature provides a deeper insight into the scope and range of application of BIVA in sport and exercise.

Objective

The main goal of this work was to systematically review the sources on the applications of BIVA in sport and exercise and to examine its usefulness and suitability as a technique for the evaluation of body composition, hydration status, and other physiological and clinical relevant characteristics, ultimately to trace future perspectives in this growing area, including a proposal for a research agenda.

Methods

Systematic literature searches in PubMed, SPORTDiscus and Scopus databases up to July, 2017 were conducted on any empirical investigations using phase-sensitive bioimpedance instruments to perform BIVA within exercise and sport contexts. The search included healthy sedentary individuals, physically active subjects and athletes.

Result

Nineteen eligible papers were included and classified as sixteen original articles and three scientific conference communications. Three studies analysed short-term variations in the hydration status evoked by exercise/training through whole-body measurements, eleven assessed whole-body body composition changes induced by long-term exercise, four compared athletic groups or populations using the whole-body assessment, and two analysed bioelectrical patterns of athletic injuries or muscle damage through localised bioimpedance measurements.

Conclusions

BIVA is a relatively new technique that has potential in sport and exercise, especially for the assessment of soft-tissue injury. On the other hand, the current tolerance ellipses of “classic” BIVA are not a valid method to identify dehydration in individual athletes and a new approach is needed. “Specific” BIVA, a method which proposes a correction of bioelectrical values for body geometry, emerges as the key to overcome “classic” BIVA limitations regarding the body composition assessment. Further research establishing standardised testing procedures and investigating the relationship between physiology and the bioelectrical signal in sport and exercise is needed.