Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) as a measure of the cardiac autonomic nervous system activity (CANA) has the potential to tailor endurance training and may contribute to the prevention of overtraining. We aimed to investigate whether there are sex differences and sex-specific reactions of the CANA to different training periods (TPs) in Swiss elite runners.
Methods: Two HRV measurements (each 5 minutes supine and 5 minutes standing) per athlete were performed, the first during preparation period (PP) and the second during competition period (CP).
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Background: During the last years many studies were conducted to investigate the contribution of various genetic variants to endurance and sprint/power performance of elite athletes. Data on team sport athletes are missing to a large extent. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the frequency of selected polymorphisms on elite athlete status in Austrian team sport (handball, soccer), endurance and power athletes as well as in healthy control subjects.
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In 2008, the World Anti-Doping Agency officially launched the biological passport. The first validated module to operate was the blood module to fight erythropoietin (EPO) and blood transfusion abuse. It has been quite efficient to catch some doped athletes, but above all, was very good in reducing the prevalence of doping. It is unclear if athletes stopped doping or have adapted and are taking micro doses of EPO or transfusing small blood volumes. More recently, the steroid module was released, but until now, the number of urine adverse passport cases is very low.
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Long term storage of the anti-doping samples and their reanalyses becomes today more and more a trend in the anti-doping community. The procedure has been implemented by the anti-doping authorities for the samples of the Tour de France and for the Olympic Games since Athens 2004 and has been always presented as a good tool to deter doping habits in top level sport.
Recently, the World Anti-Doping Code introduced the possibility for anti-doping organizations to store the athletes’ samples up to ten years.
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Introduction: Les différentes techniques d’immersion, en eau froide ou en eau contrastée représentent un fort intérêt pour les sportifs afin d’optimiser leur récupération. Un manque de consensus existe quant aux effets de ces modalités de récupération. Objectif: évaluer les effets des deux interventions à 24 heures post effort musculaire dans les sports acycliques. Méthode: revue systématique et méta-analyse. Quatre bases de données explorées (Pubmed, Cinahl, Web of Science, Cochrane). Indicateurs observés: courbatures (DOMS: Delayed onset Muscle Soreness), créatine kinase (CK), et capacités fonctionnelles.
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The aim of this study was to examine the validity of the electronic jump measurement system Training TesterTM to measure team handball specific jump performance. For this reason, standing reach height and team handball jump specific reach height were determined simultaneously with the Training TesterTM and a motion capture system as criterion measure. The Training TesterTM slightly underestimated the variables of interest. This can be explained by the relative small measuring zone of the Training TesterTM in comparison to the motion capture system. However, the correlation coefficients between both measurement methods were found to be very high.
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Objective. Sports injuries are one of the most common injuries in the modern Western society. In line with the increased interest in eHealth, a tailor-based online injury prevention intervention was developed to influence determinants and actual sports injury preventive behaviour. An effect study was carried out among runners.
Methods. Runners between 18 and 35 years were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=109) or control group (n=105). Participants in the intervention group were invited to visit the website for 30 minutes. Those in the control group were invited to read magazines that did not contain information about running, injuries or other sport related issues for 30 minutes.
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There are different devices on the market for assessing strength and power in vertical jumping as a fundamental requisite of an athlete’s performance. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of two instruments measuring force, power, velocity, and jump height in squat jumps. Myotest® (MYO) (Myotest SA, Switzerland) was compared with force plate measurements (Quattro Jump® [QUATTRO], Kistler, Switzerland & SPSport Software, Trins, Austria). Forty-three frontier-guards (age range 25–58 years) performed twice a series of five squat jumps (SJ) simultaneously using MYO device along with QUATTRO force plate. Reliability was analysed using ICC, CV and RMSE. Results for reliability for both devices show good results with ICCs ranging from 0.910 to 0.955, and CVs ranging from 2.33% to 6.59% for discrete outcome variables.
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There is a substantial lack of research comparing the effects of game console-based activities against conventional activities (aerobic, bicycle ergometer) within therapeutic and rehabilitative settings and the results are inconsistent. The aim of the study was to investigate if training with exergames (Nintendo Wii vs. Xbox 360) compared with conventional activities (bicycle ergometer) would have different effects on physiological and psychological parameters.
Method: A quantitative three-armed, randomised, not-blinded study design was used. The test persons were randomly assigned to one of three activities: 1) Bicycle ergometer (n = 6); 2. Nintendo Wii game (n = 16); 3. Xbox 360 game (n = 17).
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