Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. In the April Sports Science Monthly we start off by looking at a new framework for evaluating research. Then we focus on new findings about specific topics like gluten free diets for athletes, the role of testosterone in female performance, sports nutrition, the speed gene, and more. 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
One of the “Holy Grails” in sport is the ability to predict, with accuracy, whether someone has the potential to become an elite athlete or not. I’ve covered this in previous articles and papers in terms of genetics, discussing whether we can test for it or not and how we might think of talent in terms of the ability to respond to training. However, at present, predicting future performance remains very difficult. But we keep trying and a recent paper in Biology of Sport took a novel approach to trying to predict sprint performance. The researchers recruited 104 Croatian sprinters and collected a wide variety of data points relating to anthropometric, genetic, and psychological traits to create a rich data set for analysis. Read more
This article was co-authored with my colleague Peter Colagiuri at BioAthletic. Colagiuri is release an upcoming app for sports injury diagnosis. You can learn more at Sports Injury Online.
When we talk about plyometrics, we are talking about a very broad category of movements. The one thing they have in common is that they involve rapid stretching and shortening of contractile and elastic components of muscle. When it comes to rehabilitation, this category is unfortunately often brushed over or completely forgotten. In this article we hope to show some ideas on how and why plyometrics should be included in the rehabilitation spectrum. Read more
Bill Shankly, perhaps Liverpool’s most famous manager, once famously said “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” This comment was made partly tongue in cheek, and, although we often take sport seriously, we’re very lucky that athletes tend to be very healthy, and we probably never have to make life or death decisions. The medical profession isn’t so lucky and coaches can often learn from how doctors approach decision making under that kind of pressure. 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
There is an arms race in today’s sporting environment. Teams, athletes, coaches and support staff aren’t just fighting for the best facilities and talent, they’re also seeing who can collect the most numbers. This is the era of big data, and the past decade has seen an unrivaled amount of information available in sports from a wide variety of methods, including the use of GPS systems, electronic timing gates, force platforms, blood testing, and general wellness questionnaires. The richness and vastness of information available, however, can also be seen as a curse; both teams and individuals can feel like they have to collect more and more data, in the hope that they can gain an edge over their competitors, and better enhance athletic performance. As with many things, we need to shift the focus on data from quantity to quality. 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
Each year we try to get a little bit better, and looking back at 2018 I think we achieved that goal. Throughout the course of 2018 our 22 contributors produced 104 new podcast episodes, over 300 articles, 8 premium video lessons, 12 monthly themes, 6 member hangouts, and our new movement Library. To help you sort through all the great content, we’ve assembled our top 30 articles, 10 podcasts, and 5 videos from the year, as well as some more highlights and links. If you want more, you can browse our archives and also check out our top posts from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Read more
A warm-up routine can be critical in increasing preparedness for subsequent effort and thus maximizing performance. However, the effectiveness of the warm-up routine appears to be dependent on many factors such as the type of sport, athlete fitness and experience, tasks to be performed, environmental conditions, and constraints imposed by event organizers. New research on warming up has attempted to quantify those factors, by synthesizing the results of 30 peer-reviewed studies on warming up in team sports. Read more
