Sports Medicine最新文献

Dehydration’s adverse impact on athletic performance is a critical concern in sports science, yet its investigation remains challenging due to interindividual variability and methodological inconsistencies. Traditional reductionist approaches, which isolate single variables, are insufficient to capture the multifactorial nature of dehydration, which emerges from dynamic interactions among physiological and behavioral factors. These include the method of inducing dehydration, protocol duration, type of fluid loss, environmental conditions, participant characteristics, assessment techniques, and potential nocebo effects. Despite the complexity and relevance of this issue, standardized guidelines for designing sport-specific dehydration studies are lacking. This article addresses this gap by cataloging key interacting variables and offering structured, adaptable guidance rather than proposing a rigid framework. It introduces a dual framework of ‘challenges and considerations’ and ‘recommendations’ for each factor, aiming to support researchers in developing rigorous, context-specific study designs. Ultimately, this approach will promote a more nuanced understanding of dehydration and facilitate reproducible, sport-relevant research advancement.

The causes of mental ill health in elite athletes are complex, influenced by socioeconomic and cultural factors. These factors are important in shaping discussions surrounding the mental health of athletes and the design of subsequent interventions to support them. However, such consideration is rare, particularly when considering the mental health of athletes in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, this Current Opinion draws on behavioural change science and multi-disciplinary expertise in elite sport, medicine, health, psychology, coaching and anthropology in the context of elite runners in Kenya. The material conditions in this country are reflected in the prevalence of poor mental health and treatment availability. We explore the mental health of elite Kenyan runners within this context and provide recommendations surrounding the treatment of mental health conditions in elite sport globally. We conclude that a consensus on the mental health of elite athletes must be informed by contextual factors, including affordability, appropriateness, availability, and accessibility of mental health services relating to local conditions. This context-specific approach could be expanded to mental health in settings other than sport such as youth organisations.

Introduction: Global pregnancy physical activity guidelines recommend most individuals engage in at least 150 min/week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. However, exercise beyond these limits has received little investigation and assessment of safety. There is no consensus on safe durations of exercise bouts within the literature, with recommendations ranging from 10 to 60 min.

Objective: The aim was to examine the impact of long-duration endurance exercise (≥ 60 min/session) on maternal-fetal health outcomes.

Methods: A total of 331 participants who engaged in long-duration endurance exercise during pregnancy participated in an online survey.

Results: Participants were aged 33.2 ± 6.1 years and had 2.1 ± 1.2 pregnancies. Subgroup analyses were performed comparing: (1) those who exercised within guidelines, ≤ 300 min/week during the third trimester (T3), and (2) those who exercised above guidelines, > 300 min/week during T3. Participants who exceeded guidelines experienced reduced odds of delivery complications (odds ratio [OR] 0.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.015-0.988, p < 0.05) but increased the odds of diastasis recti abdominis postpartum (OR 4.13, 95% CI 1.059-16.135, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Exercising > 300 min/week in T3 reduces odds of delivery complications, but increases odds of diastasis recti abdominis postpartum. Endurance exercise > 300 min/week in T3 is generally well tolerated in a highly active population.

Background: The ability to change direction rapidly is crucial for enhancing performance in multidirectional sports. Evidence suggests that several biomechanical variables are associated with faster change of direction (COD) completion times. However, while it is understood that biomechanical factors influence COD performance, the evidence remains unclear because of the diverse range of biomechanical factors, inconsistent findings and potential influences from various moderating factors (e.g. sex, training experience).

Objective: The primary aim of this systematic review was to identify the biomechanical determinants of COD performance while the secondary aim was to examine the impact of moderating factors on the determinants. The findings of this review could assist practitioners in designing effective training and coaching strategies to improve COD performance.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted across the electronic databases of Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus. Studies were considered eligible if they involved healthy participants, considered biomechanical determinants of COD performance via correlational analyses and reported COD performance (i.e. time to completion). The quality of the study was assessed via the Kmet scale while study findings were collated.

Results: A total of 13 studies met the inclusion criteria and analysed 45-180° COD tasks involving 374 participants. Kmet scores ranged from 73 to 96%, indicating good-to-excellent methodological quality of studies. Several biomechanical variables were identified as contributors to quicker COD completion times, including shorter ground contact time, higher approach and exit velocities, increased braking and propulsive forces, greater trunk inclination angle, lower centre-of-mass height, and increased moments and power at the hip, knee and ankle. With respect to moderating factors, included studies utilised various COD tasks (45-180°), examined mostly male participants (79.4%) with inconsistent reporting of playing/training experience and all consisted of a pre-planned COD task only.

Conclusions: Our findings identified several key biomechanical variables that were important determinants of faster COD performance. However, the impact of moderating factors on COD performance was minimally examined in prior studies and requires further investigation. Recommendations are provided in this paper focussing on biomechanical contributors (e.g. ground contact time, approach velocity, braking forces), which may assist coaches with relevant training modalities to enhance COD performance.