Downhill mountain bike racing requires total body strength, power, and endurance as races last up to five minutes often requiring intermittent bursts of peak wattage output to the pedals while navigating a course littered with obstacles battering the rider with high g-forces requiring immense upper body strength (Hurst et al., 2018). Grip strength endurance has been shown to be the second most influential element of the rider with riding skill being the most important (Chidle

Research Article:   Lopes, L. R., Machado, D. E., Goes, R. A., Amaral, M. V. G., Dias, F., Tavares, V., Medeiros, R., & Perini, J. A. (2025). Implications of tendinopathy on the sports career: Epidemiological and clinical profile of high-performance athletes. Physical Therapy in Sport , 72 , 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2025.02.003 Application   With 10-50% of elite athletes having a chronic tendinopathy, what can be done to identify and manage risk factors? The nota

If you have already read or listened me discuss scientific research stratigies for sleep, then you are probably already aware of some of the follow. However, here is the cheat sheet nicely summed up: ·       Sleep <8 hours in adolescents is #1 strongest predictor of INJURY   ·       Chronic insomnia increases CRP and IL-6   ·       CHO: higher glycemic & consumed at evening meal. Increases plasma L-tryptophan (indirectly via spike in insulin causes large neutral proteins to b

Research article citation:   Wang, W., Wu, D., Wang, H., Zhang, Z., Jiang, X., Li, S., Shi, Y., & Gao, X. (2024). Acute Effects of Breath-Hold Conditions on Aerobic Fitness in Elite Rugby Players. Life (Basel, Switzerland) , 14 (8), 917-. https://doi.org/10.3390/life14080917 Let's get right to it. Straight to application on why having half a dozen breath holds during an easy aerobic warmup could supercharge your VO2max transiently for instant benefits in subsequent training

Why is it so common to get drowsy after a solid Thanksgiving meal with high carbohydrate, high simple carbohydrate (sugars) and high L-tryptophan protein? We can use these anecdotal situations added to research to improve sleep. The concept of incorporating carbohydrate (CHO) of higher glycemic index for the evening meal might improve quantity and quality of sleep. An example of a meal which could positively impact sleep would be a large serving of rice, with a small portion

Endurance sports have a risk of the athletes developing intentionally or unintentionally LEA (low energy availability) which has higher prevalence in females, but should we be monitoring males, especially youth males for relative energy deficiency in sport (aka RED-S). An interesting study examined the special energy analysis of youth cyclists in season which occurs during hotter weather for possibility of LEA. By definition LEA is when daily consumption of <30kcal/ kg fat-fr

Over a decade ago I began to experiment with time-restricted feeding. Initially it was due to chronic GI and throat issues. For several years for most of the day I felt like something was stuck in my throat and randomly have deep painful pressure in my chest deep to the sternum. For about two years I visited several doctors like ENT’s and GI specialists, even an had and endoscopy and barium swallow with no findings. To treat the symptoms without any definite, understand or di

The narrative review by Wohlgemuth et al. (2021) explains most research for nutrition and sports performance is on males instead of females and it is females who have a variety of fluctuating nutrition and metabolic changes depending on their cycle. For example, eumenorrheic women metabolize fat and protein at a higher percentage in the luteal phase compared to the follicular stage. Basal metabolic rate (BMR) and training recovery rate/ capacities also vary across the cycle.

Best practices for management of post-rehab training of an ACL injury in females. First, we will focus on making sure the athlete is ready for return to sport (RTS) after the rehab. We need to make sure their body and mind can exceed the capacity and demands needed in their sport. Currently, a metanalysis found that only about 69% of female athletes can return to their previous sport and 79% of elite females return to their sport with literature lacking on reasons for the hig

More discussion as grown in the past few years about the special considerations and ways to take advantage of the female cycle in exercise in sport. For sake of discussion, a young adult (premenopausal) moderately active female field sport athlete will be considered as an example for this article.   A recent study surveyed elite female athletes and found that 86% were unwilling or uncomfortable to take time off from the psychological and physical effects of the menstrual cycl

Should children be resistance training? If so, how should we be preparing children for it? For the sake of this discussion, “children” will be defined as those who have yet to reach puberty, so generally somewhere between 6-13 years old depending on sex. Secondly, under what context would we consider resistance training for children? Again, for the sake of this post, the demographic would be elementary P.E. class or general physical conditioning for kids not necessarily invol

This article will discuss evidence-based principles for post-partum women who are breastfeeding and want to resume or begin training for endurance sports and activities. Depending on any comorbidities or trauma from the birthing process, the starting timeline would vary. One reason to improve fitness before and during pregnancy is the ability or capacity to return to sport and activities much sooner. A study found that 38% of elite female athletes returning to running withing

What are the recommendations and guidelines for exercise implementation in the post-partum phase? More specifically, how does one determine when, how much, and the expected benefits of exercising and movement? A sample recommendation of a daily exercise routine will be provided below and would be after 4-6 weeks post-partum. Why Some research studies have demonstrated safety and effectiveness of some exercise like Pilates as early as a few days post-partum. However, there is

The metabolic disorder of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) will be discussed for this post. DM2 affects over 27 million people in the USA and often can have sequalae of dyslipidemia, hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, neuropathy and obesity comorbidities (Dunford & Doyle, 2019). DM2 is the resulting cascade of insulin resistance resulting in the body’s inability to transport and shuttle glucose into the cells which leads to proinflammatory proteins and fasting blood g

Sample Athlete:  14-year-old eumenorrheic basketball player without symptoms of RED-S in the “specific preparatory” phase of the preseason.   The sport of basketball demands a variety of fitness abilities from the athlete unlike many other sports. There is nearly equal aerobic and anerobic needs as repeated sprinting and shuffling occur without significant rest between these bouts. Therefore, a key need is the ability to perform repeated short, high-intensity efforts (5-10 s

Recommended 4 Week Resistance Training Intervention for College Female Basketball Players During Pre-Season.   Rationale :             Female basketball players require a diverse set of fitness abilities to both excel in the sport and prevent injury. Basic requirements to be a proficient player consist of aerobic endurance, jumping ability, agility, strength, balance, coordination, and higher lactate thresholds. Regarding injury risk, a major concern in basketball are lower b

One RCT study tested a theory of transient hypocalcemia occurring towards the middle-later portion of the luteal phase in certain women. Subjects who supplemented with 1,000mg calcium for these 7-10 days saw significant reduction in PMS symptoms (Arab et al., 2020). Since divergence from serum calcium homeostasis affects so many systems from cognitive and emotional to muscle contraction and relaxation, I also investigated specific recommendations from this week’s article Reco