Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. To kick of 2021 we’ve put together one of our biggest editions yet, reviewing 12 new articles on a range of topics from a critique of data-driven coaching, repeatability of training improvements, caffeine periodization, crowd wisdom, and what coaches can learn from hunter gatherers.
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Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. We start off by looking at research how accurate subjective feeling can be in quantifying training stress. Then we look at a variety of other topics concerning weight training such as pre-competition priming, isometric mid-thigh pull, foot strength, eccentric quasi-isometric resistance, and more. Read more
Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. In the August Sports Science Monthly we continue a discussion we started last month and look at monitoring in sports, specifically Acute Chronic Workload Ratio and its role in injury prediction. Then we look at microbes, caffeine, Nordics, and priming for performance. Read more
Caffeine is a performance enhancing drug. If you’ve been following my articles over the last couple of years, you’ll no doubt be aware of that, because I write about it a lot. Athletes, of course, know that caffeine has the potential to enhance their performance, which is why many of them consume it prior to training and competition. Additionally, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) know that caffeine is a performance enhancing drug and are, rightly, concerned about the abuse of caffeine in sport. Read more
The March edition of Sports Science Monthly focuses on the latest research on squats. Hopefully we can give some answers to the age-old debate about whether deep squats and shallow squats are the best. We also look at training frequency and session volume, several recent doping studies and much more. Read more
Caffeine is one of the most performance enhancing drugs available to athletes, with research demonstrating that it has ergogenic effects on a range of exercise types, including aerobic endurance, strength, and repeated anaerobic activities. Athletes are of course aware of this, and research tends to suggest that around three-quarters of athletes utilise caffeine either immediately before or during competitions. But new research indicates that the effects are not as general as you may think, and could have no effect or even harm performances for some athletes. Read more
In the January Sports Science Monthly we kick off the year by looking at some new and old topics. We start by looking at how simply communicating information can impact physiology, wearable resistance, and calf strength. We also touch on recurring topics like sleep, quantifying the effects of caffeine, and much more. Read more
Caffeine is a well-established performance enhancer; this is no secret, with many athletes using it to improve their performance. Non-athletes know this too, which is why almost 80% of the world’s population consume caffeine on a daily basis. As a result, caffeine is ubiquitous, and we are exposed to it in a number of different ways; primarily through hot drinks (such as tea or coffee), but also through foods (like dark chocolate) and medicines (many extra strength cold and flu or pain medicines contain caffeine). Read more
This month’s theme on HMMR Media is around the personalization and individualization of performance. Typically, this focuses on the physical side, but at the start of this month I wrote about how a focus on differences in stress tolerance—a largely psychological aspect—might guide individualized training a bit more. But there is another area where we can turn our attention; that of ergogenic aids such as caffeine. Towards the end of last year I co-authored a paper with John Kiely on factors that might impact the individual response to caffeine intake in athletes. In this article, I want to expand on that topic, and discuss how athletes and coaches might use this information in a real-world setting. Read more
In the May edition of Sports Science Monthly we look at new research across a variety of areas including the latest research on caffeine, how genetics impact caffeine, pre-exercise stretching, recovery, muscular strength, and more. Read more
