Altered Drop Jump Landing Biomechanics Following Eccentric Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage

Circadian Rhythm and Physical Fatigue Separately Influence Cognitive and Physical Performance in Amateur Athletes

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

Circadian rhythm (CR) influences various physiological functions, including physical and cognitive performance, which fluctuate throughout the day. The present study aimed to investigate the combined and separate effects of CR and physical fatigue on cognitive and physical performance.

METHODS

A sample of 18 amateur athletes was subjected to a series of tests at three different times of the day: morning, afternoon, and evening. Fatigue was induced following an isokinetic concentric exercise combined with a 20 min treadmill run, followed by assessments of selected physical and cognitive tasks.

RESULTS

A repeated measure ANOVA did not reveal an interaction between CR and fatigue in cognitive performance (p > 0.05). However, a significant main effect of fatigue was observed in visual reaction time (VisRT) across all three timepoints. Moreover, peak torque (PT) and the peak torque fatigue index (PTFI) showed significant differences between the three times of the day, peaking in the evening.

CONCLUSIONS

Although we found no interaction between CR and the physical fatigue state on selected cognitive parameters at the three times of the day, a separate effect of fatigue on cognitive performance was identified. Additionally, physical parameters exhibited peak values occurring in the evening hours. Future research should further explore underlying mechanisms that potentially influence cognitive performance at different times of the day.

Force-Time Characteristics of Repeated Bouts of Depth Jumps and the Effects of Compression Garments

No studies have reported ground reaction force (GRF) profiles of the repeated depth jump (DJ) protocols commonly used to study exercise-induced muscle damage. Furthermore, while compression garments (CG) may accelerate recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage, any effects on the repeated bout effect are unknown. Therefore, we investigated the GRF profiles of 2 repeated bouts of damage-inducing DJs and the effects of wearing CG for recovery. Nonresistance-trained males randomly received CG (n = 9) or placebo (n = 8) for 72 hours recovery, following 20 × 20 m sprints and 10 × 10 DJs from 0.6 m. Exercise was repeated after 14 days. Using a 3-way (set × bout × group) design, changes in GRF were assessed with analysis of variance and statistical parametric mapping. Jump height, reactive strength, peak, and mean propulsive forces declined between sets (P < .001). Vertical stiffness, contact time, force at zero velocity, and propulsive duration increased (P < .05). According to statistical parametric mapping, braking (17%-25% of the movement) and propulsive forces (58%-81%) declined (P < .05). During the repeated bout, peak propulsive force and duration increased (P < .05), while mean propulsive force (P < .05) and GRF from 59% to 73% declined (P < .001). A repeated bout of DJs differed in propulsive GRF, without changes to the eccentric phase, or effects from CG.

Relationships between surrogate measures of mechanical and psychophysiological load, patellar tendon adaptations, and neuromuscular performance in NCAA division I men's volleyball athletes

Introduction

Patellar tendon adaptations occur in response to mechanical load. Appropriate loading is necessary to elicit positive adaptations with increased risk of injury and decreased performance likely if loading exceeds the capacity of the tendon. The aim of the current study was to examine intra-individual associations between workloads and patellar tendon properties and neuromuscular performance in collegiate volleyball athletes.

Methods

National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I men's volleyball athletes (n = 16, age: 20.33 ± 1.15 years, height: 193.50 ± 6.50 cm, body mass: 84.32 ± 7.99 kg, bodyfat%: 13.18 ± 4.72%) competing across 9 weeks of in-season competition participated. Daily measurements of external workloads (i.e., jump count) and internal workloads [i.e., session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE)] were recorded. Weekly measurements included neuromuscular performance assessments (i.e., countermovement jump, drop jump), and ultrasound images of the patellar tendon to evaluate structural adaptations. Repeated measures correlations (r-rm) assessed intra-individual associations among performance and patellar tendon metrics.

Results

Workload measures exhibited significant negative small to moderate (r-rm =-0.26-0.31) associations with neuromuscular performance, negative (r-rm = -0.21-0.30), and positive (r-rm = 0.20-0.32) small to moderate associations with patellar tendon properties.

Discussion

Monitoring change in tendon composition and performance adaptations alongside workloads may inform evidence-based frameworks toward managing and reducing the risk of the development of patellar tendinopathy in collegiate men's volleyball athletes.

Exercise induced muscle damage and repeated bout effect: an update for last 10 years and future perspectives

Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) and repeated bout effect (RBE) are widely researched across various populations. EIMD is the muscle damage occurring after one bout of unaccustomed exercise while RBE is the attenuation of the same muscle damage in subsequent second bout. RBE seems to have significant implications for exercise prescription. Despite existence of vast literature, there is lack of clarity on the effects of EIMD and RBE in a healthy population. The purpose of this study is to review the literature on EIMD and RBE in healthy participants published during the last 10 years. The search of major databases (including Scopus, Google Scholar and PubMed) was conducted using specific keywords ‘Exercise induced muscle damage’, ‘Repeated bout effect’, ‘Healthy participants’ ‘Pre-conditioning’, ‘Eccentric exercise’. Studies published from 2011 onwards which included EIMD and RBE assessment in healthy participants were included in this review. Database searching revealed a total of 38 studies on EIMD and RBE in healthy participants. Three major themes of papers were identified that focused on EIMD and RBE along with (1) age related differences, (2) sex-based differences, and (3) response in athletes. Findings of this comprehensive review suggests that both EIMD and RBE are age, and sex specific. Delayed onset muscle soreness played a major role in both EIMD and RBE in all the population types. Female participants are less susceptible to EIMD as compared to age-matched male counterparts. Moreover, both EIMD and RBE are more elicited in middle aged and younger adults as compared to children and older adults while the magnitude of RBE turns out to be minimal in trained individuals due to persisting adaptations.

Leveraging explainable machine learning to identify gait biomechanical parameters associated with anterior cruciate ligament injury

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficient and reconstructed knees display altered biomechanics during gait. Identifying significant gait changes is important for understanding normal and ACL function and is typically performed by statistical approaches. This paper focuses on the development of an explainable machine learning (ML) empowered methodology to: (i) identify important gait kinematic, kinetic parameters and quantify their contribution in the diagnosis of ACL injury and (ii) investigate the differences in sagittal plane kinematics and kinetics of the gait cycle between ACL deficient, ACL reconstructed and healthy individuals. For this aim, an extensive experimental setup was designed in which three-dimensional ground reaction forces and sagittal plane kinematic as well as kinetic parameters were collected from 151 subjects. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology was evaluated using a comparative analysis with eight well-known classifiers. Support Vector Machines were proved to be the best performing model (accuracy of 94.95%) on a group of 21 selected biomechanical parameters. Neural Networks accomplished the second best performance (92.89%). A state-of-the-art explainability analysis based on SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and conventional statistical analysis were then employed to quantify the contribution of the input biomechanical parameters in the diagnosis of ACL injury. Features, that would have been neglected by the traditional statistical analysis, were identified as contributing parameters having significant impact on the ML model’s output for ACL injury during gait.

768-km Multi-Stage Ultra-Trail Case Study-Muscle Damage, Biochemical Alterations and Strength Loss on Lower Limbs

A series of case studies aimed to evaluate muscular fatigue in running a 768-km ultra-trail race in 11 days. Four non-professional athletes (four males) were enrolled. Muscle damage blood biomarkers (creatine kinase (CK), lactodeshydrogenase (LDH), aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and lower limb strength were evaluated by using Bosco jumps test; squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ) and Abalakov jump (ABA) were assessed before (pre), after the race (post) and for two and nine days during the recovery period (rec2 and rec9), respectively. Results showed: pre-post SJ = −28%, CMJ = −36% and ABA = −21%. Values returned to basal during rec9: SJ = −1%, CMJ = −2% or even exceeded pre-values ABA = +3%. On the contrary, muscle damage blood biomarkers values increased at post; CK = +888%, LDH = +172%, AST = +167% and ALT = +159% and the values returned gradually to baseline at rec9 except for AST = +226% and ALT = +103% which remained higher. Nonparametric bivariate Spearman’s test showed strong correlations (Rs ≥ 0.8) between some jumps and muscle damage biomarkers at post (SJ-LDH Rs = 0.80, SJ-AST Rs = 0.8, ABA-LD H Rs = 0.80 and ABA-AST Rs = 0.80), at rec2 (SJ-CK Rs = 0.80 and SJ-ALT Rs = 0.80) and even during rec9 (ABA-CK). Similarly, some parameters such as accumulated elevation and training volume showed a strong correlation with LDH values after finishing the ultra-trail race. The alteration induced by completing an ultra-trail event in the muscle affects lower limb strength and may in some circumstances result in serious medical conditions including post- exertional rhabdomyolysis.