The 2015 Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine David B Pyne1, Shona L
Halson1, Will G Hopkins2 Sportscience 19, 27-35, 2015 (sportsci.org/2015/ACSM.htm) 1 Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Email. 2 High Performance Sport NZ, Auckland, New Zealand and Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Email. Reviewers: Pitre Bourdon, Research and Quality Assurance, Aspire Academy, Doha, Qatar; Jeni Pearce, High Performance Sport NZ, Auckland, New Zealand.
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Some
6,400 delegates travelled to San Diego, California for the 62nd Annual
Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) at the San Diego
Convention Center, May 26-30. Regular attendees of the ACSM meeting are familiar
with sheer size and scale of activities that make selecting sessions a bit of
a challenge. This year ACSM also hosted the 6th World Congress on Exercise is
Medicine and the World Congress on the Basic Science of Exercise Fatigue.
Here we present commentary and analysis of selected sessions: featured
presentations of keynotes, symposia and tutorial lectures, which lack
abstracts (by David Pyne and Shona Halson) and noteworthy
abstracts of the free communications and poster presentations (by Will
Hopkins). David Pyne and Shona Halson
The
conference program followed the usual format of previous year: several
pre-conference programs including nutrition, Exercise is Medicine and
research training, followed by three and a half days of the main meeting. A
big problem that the ACSM needs to address is the small attendance of
delegates on the final Saturday morning. It was embarrassing to see invited
symposia and even the President’s Lectures so poorly attended. Some posters
were being removed at 10:30 am as delegates departed early. One school of
thought is to run the main conference from Tuesday to Friday then have the
satellite programs on the Saturday – worth a try. The
3500 abstracts were available online or as a pdf prior to the meeting. The
mobile app worked really well and is a great addition – just a pity the free WiFi didn’t extend to the meeting rooms. The standard of organisation certainly met the typically high
expectations for the ACSM Annual Meeting. There was
also a large number of formal meetings (interest groups, journal editorial
boards) and informal meetings (alumni reunions, other receptions) conducted
in and around the main program. The trade exhibits had plenty to interest the
delegates from instrumentation and equipment, to publications, software and
increasing consumer technology and wearables. Our US colleagues certainly
know how to run large scale meetings and conferences. The
strongest areas of the conference were athlete care and clinical medicine,
exercise and health, physical activity and inactivity, physiology and
nutrition. The Basic Science of Exercise Fatigue congress featured several
sessions on this important topic, with notable keynote speakers including
Michael Joyner (historical aspects), Roger Enoka
(fatigue and performance), and Michael Reid (reactive oxygen species). The
science was pretty impressive, although the practical applications of muscle
research at the level of the cross-bridge (for example) were not always easy
to discern. Bill Kraemer: Science of
resistance training
Bill
Kraemer opened the meeting with the J.B. Wolfe Lecture on Scientific Evolution of Resistance
Training. He outlined a global set of questions addressing the means of
building stronger, bigger, powerful bodies underpinning enhanced sports
performance. A cluster analysis of relevant publications over the last 50 years
highlighted the contributions and lead authors in the areas of applied and
clinical work, physiology, metabolic pathways and bone/health benefits. The
paucity of good studies on females needs addressing. Kramer contended that
research has played important roles in the periodization models of strength
and endurance, and that individual variations in response to training are
being elucidated by physiological explanations in the areas of satellite
cells, mitochondria, hormonal profiles, somatotype and muscle fiber
composition. Ron Maughan: History of
sports nutrition
Ron
used his encyclopedic knowledge of sports, sports nutrition and research for
the Bruce Dill historical lecture on Landmarks
in the Development of Sports Nutrition. There is over 100 years of study
in some areas of sports nutrition, which prompted Ron to implore interested
delegates to be a student of history – we can learn from the acute insights
made long ago. In more recent decades advances in macronutrient metabolism,
hydration, neurotransmitters, central fatigue and peripheral fatigue are
underpinning contemporary practices, but there is much to learn. Like Bill
Kraemer, Ron was generous in acknowledging the contributions of others from
well-known scientists to the relatively obscure. Peter Wagner: What limits VO2max?
Peter
Wagner in his usual highly elegant and authoritative style championed a
systems approach to this perennial question. He quickly asserted that asking
whether VO2max was limited by
oxygen transport (air to mitochondria), or oxygen utilization by the
mitochondria, was not the right question. Peter laid out a persuasive case,
based on experimental studies, that both improved O2 transport and mitochondrial use of O2 can explain adaptations to submaximal and maximal exercise.
This knowledge can inform design of athlete studies examining issues such as
energetic profiling in the laboratory, altitude training, and adaptations to
endurance training. Pediatric issues: Kids, sports
and injury
Andrea
Straccolini examined the issues of the elite child
athlete and risk of injury. The take home messages were that pre-season
conditioning can reduce injury rates, warm-up can lower the risk of lower
extremity injury, overuse injury is itself a predictor of injury, and injury
often initiates unfavorable weight gain. These issues seem to be important
for both youth and adult populations. Peak height-velocity assessment can be
useful in research settings. Sleep appears to be an injury risk factor (<8
h sleep associated with 1.7-fold higher risk of injury), and early sports
specialization was associated with an almost two-fold greater risk of injury. Extreme exercise: Where do we
draw the line
Cardiac
specialist Aaron Baggish detailed studies of
cardiac adaptations to exercise and training. Remodeling is a complex process
related to genetic, lifestyle and training issues in athletes and sedentary
individuals spanning young adults to the elderly. Reference was made to Greg
Whyte’s research showing, in a small minority of individuals, that fibrosis and
cardiac muscle scarring is related to training load. Baggish
advised coaches and clinicians to discuss relationships between health and performance,
plan for annual periodicity in training loads, employ effective warm-ups and
cool-downs, prepare carefully for extreme events, respect a virus
(cardiomyopathy), and watch for warning signs. Lactic acid: Friend or foe?
Bob Fitts and Hakan Westerblad were pitted against each other in a session addressing
whether lactic acid is the primary cause of fatigue (Fitts
pro, Westerblad anti). Westerblad
outlined experimental evidence via single isolated muscle fiber models
indicating low pH is not important and that impaired contractility is the
primary mechanism of muscular fatigue. He concluded that lactate and H+
are good markers but not the makers of fatigue. In contrast, Fitts contended that multi-fiber models show that
increased H+ decreases Ca2+ myofibrillar
sensitivity, Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, and
ultimately muscle power. So what does this mean for the sports science
practitioner? Lactic acid or blood lactate monitoring can be useful, and
there is a case for buffering agents, but other factors relating to muscle
performance and fatigue need considering. Fraud in Exercise
Science
A
panel of exercise scientists including Carl Foster, Steve Blair, John Porcari, David Pyne and Jeffrey
Beale explored the issue of fraud in exercise science. Porcari
spoke to the need for evidence-based guidelines in the fitness and sporting
communities based on research with quality designs, methodology, analysis and
interpretation. Beale gave an insightful critique of the predatory practices
(spam emails, fake peer review, false claims to
legitimacy) of some online open-access journals, and how this is impacting negatively
on research and publication standards as some authors are drawn to the
convenience of cheap, easy and fast publishing. It was alleged that some
databases are now filled largely with junk science. Beale offered education
and awareness as two immediate preventative actions. Fatigue: Mechanisms
Several
sessions provided the opportunity for review of basic science studies of the
mechanics of fatigue, including muscle glycogen, O2 transport and utilization, and neural and biochemical
sources. The physiologist should have a working knowledge of central and
peripheral neural control mechanisms, contractile elements, bioenergetics in
the muscle, and how these regulate O2 delivery for endurance events, and force/power generation
for other sports. Roger Enoka proposed a framework
of exercise-related fatigue that integrates perceptive elements (subjective)
with the various physiological elements (objective). He called for more uniform
terminology and explicit language, a systems rather than a reductionist approach
for measuring factors that constrain performance, and a focus on primary
outcome measures (including exercise and sports performance). Fatigue: Neural Adjustments
There is increasing interest and evidence regarding
the role of the central nervous system in the development of fatigue. Romain Meeusen discussed the
use of dopamine and noradrenaline inhibitors during exercise in the heat.
These pharmaceuticals can enhance performance and increase core temperature,
without a change in perception of effort. Their use can therefore be
dangerous. Stimulation of the dopaminergic system can increase motivation and
suppress heat-loss mechanisms. He also outlined recent research investigating
brain activity (using electroencephalogy-EEG)
following exercise. A decrease in beta activity was found, which equates to a
decrease in information processing and a decrease in fuel use in the brain. Jacques Descateus
outlined the mechanisms of central fatigue, including decreased voluntary
drive, decreased afferent feedback, and antagonist muscle activity. He
suggested that endurance time on a fatiguing task is constrained mainly at
the spinal level. Janet Taylor described the role of motor neurons
during fatigue and described the manner in which motor-unit firing decreases
during fatigue. Serotonin from the medulla may influence motor-unit firing. Finally Markus Annan presented on some of
his fascinating work using fentanyl blockade at the spinal level to block III
and IV afferents. This work highlights the role of muscle afferents in
fatigue. Dehydration
The
notion that controversies are often matters of language and research methodologies
underpinned an invited presentation from Sam Cheuvront
on dehydration and fluid replacement. Although there is debate among a few
laboratories on thresholds of urine osmolality for determining hydration
status, a simple three-factor model for field use with athletes should be
effective: monitoring changes in body weight, checking urine composition with
color sticks, and accounting for self-reported thirst (all recorded early
morning). Energy Balance
Simple
models of calorie balance between input (diet) and expenditure (exercise) are
largely discredited, particularly in elite athlete settings. Dan Bernadot, a sports nutrition researcher and practitioner,
provided compelling evidence that simply counting calories
on a daily basis doesn’t work and should be discarded. He indicated that
inappropriate models, belief triumphing over scientific evidence,
misattribution of perceived benefits, over-simplification of good and bad
foods, and the eternal search for a magic bullet, have all conspired to make
nutrition a real challenge for practitioners, coaches and athletes. A more
insightful approach that details the timing of the nutrient load with exercise
and training sessions is recommended, an approach that has also been
championed by John Hawley, Louise Burke and other nutrition experts. In
practice, this understanding points to more frequent snacking rather than
end-of-the-day bingeing for better training management, performance, body
composition and well-being. Concussion in sport and war
Concussion
in sport is one of the most topical issues in science and medicine. Todd May
from the Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton described symptoms that are similar
for athletes who have experienced concussion and soldiers who have experienced
a blast concussion. These symptoms include headaches, photophobia, anxiety,
amnesia, confusion and difficulty sleeping. Sideline tests and appropriate
follow-up are needed for determination of return to play. Cherry Juice for Recovery and Health
Stella
Volpe summarized the studies supporting the role of cherry juice in increasing
recovery from exercise, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, and
improving sleep. An 80% increase in slow wave sleep was reported. The effects
on improved sleep and recovery are likely related to the anti-oxidants and
melatonin in cherries, although questions have been raised about the
bioavailability of the melatonin. Nutrition for Inflammation and Pain
The
role of nutrition in reducing inflammation and pain has gained research attention,
particularly in patients with chronic health issues. Erin Danneker
described the importance of acute pain from a protective perspective and that
expecting or fearing pain can affect motor behavior. Some evidence exists for
caffeine, omega-3 fatty acids and polyphenols in reducing pain. Mary Miles
reported evidence for anti-inflammatory effects of strawberries, raspberries,
orange juice, tomatoes, red wine, extra virgin olive oil and avocado. Inflammation
To
address the perennial question of how one can differentiate between adaptive
and non-adaptive processes during environmental stress, Pope Moseley
presented results of several laboratory-based experiments measuring cytokine
and heat-shock protein responses to exercise stress. Which cytokines to
measure and when are questions that have challenged many sports scientists.
Moseley contended that heat-shock protein is a key modulator of inflammatory
processes and performs the role of the master controller switching protein
management between damage clearance (tissue breakdown) and rebuilding (tissue
repair). The take-home message for researchers of inflammation was to choose
cytokine and protein markers carefully to get the right balance of
pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory and immune-regulatory measures. Ball State University 50 years on
A
late afternoon session chaired by Mark Hargreaves and Ed Coyle, in the presence
of Dave Costill and other Ball State staff and
alumni, provided a sentimental view of the long journey. From humble
beginnings in the mid-1960’s, Ball State has been a powerhouse of physiology
and performance research, delivering several generations of students (many of
who have gone on to establish their own names), and making connections into
the sports community. Mark commented that Dave’s greatest legacy was the
integration of the underlying physiology with practical applications, and
translation of outcomes into lay papers with a wide audience. ACSM also
celebrated the life of former president Jack Wilmore, who was a long-time
colleague and co-author with Dave Costill. Will Hopkins
As
usual, the focus of my report is athletic performance and injury prevention,
topics that were represented by only a small proportion of the presentations.
One again I did not attend the meeting, but I have summarized the abstracts
of the slide and poster sessions, where all the new research was presented. The
ACSM conference
site provides various links to information
about the meeting, and you can access the conference abstracts via this link. Download all seven PDFs and merge them
into one document, then use the advanced search form (Ctrl-Shift-F) in Adobe
Acrobat to find abstracts featured in this report via the number in brackets
[…]. You will get several hits, but you can quickly home in on the right one.
The abstracts are also freely available in the May
supplement of Medicine and Science in Sports and
Exercise, but searching for individual abstracts via the abstract number with
the advanced search form (enter 47 in the Volume field and 5s in the Issue
field) can be inefficient. This
year there were fewer fascinating findings to make up for the shortfall in
quantity. Here are my picks: predicting injury with iPod-based measurement of core stability; five case studies of iron non-deficiency; the ergogenic effects of a high-potassium meal, paracetamol and betalain; and a possible blood marker for overtraining. Acute
Effects
The title
says it all: "noncircular chain rings do not improve
maximum cycling power and joint-specific power during maximal cycling"
in 10 trained cyclists
[910]. "In
cross-country mountain
biking the start is important due to the
importance of a good position when entering the single track where it is
difficult to pass other cyclists." So these researchers investigated the
effect of whole-body
vibration combined with body-loaded half squats (mediated
theoretically by post-activation potentiation) on 15-s all-out sprint
performance 1 min later in a crossover with 11 well-trained cyclists. And
they got 4.4% in peak power and 2.7% in mean power, easily substantial in
terms of medals. [3299] But how can you do whole-body vibration secretly 1
min before the start on race day? Whole-body
vibration added to static stretching impaired split-jump performance
in a crossover of 27 young female gymnasts [1932]. Should
you go up
the mountain on the morning of the competition or the night
before? There was "no difference" in mean power in a crossover when
10 highly trained male athletes (cyclists?) performed a 20-km time trial after 2
h or 14 h in hypoxia equivalent to 2500 m. [2581]. But 14 h tended to be
better, by a substantial 1.3%, so by then they may have already started
acclimatizing. Two other abstracts on related topics [2580, 2582] were
missing from the PDF and were not in the supplement issue of MSSE. Correlates of Performance
There
were the usual huge numbers of studies here, but they had to have a good
sample size and practical relevance to make the cut. There
was a thematic poster session of associations between athletic performance and various genotypes,
but nothing exciting [1597-1603]. Of
all the usual anthropometric
and performance-test
measures
taken before an ice-hockey season, only the beep test and
shuttle run contributed to a step-wise multiple correlation
with game performance (total points from goals and assists) of 151 male
bantam- and midget-level forwards. Together the correlation was only 0.35, so
"to augment hockey success in adolescence, an emphasis should be placed
on increasing aerobic- and agility-fitness parameters." [3540]. Sure,
but don't neglect skill! My
impression from the recent world football conference was that the losing team covers more
ground in football
matches. So what are we to make of this study of the 611 players in the 32
games of the 2014 World Cup, showing that total distance traveled in a game had a
positive correlation of 0.41 with points scored? Passes completed also had a
substantial correlation of 0.33, but in a stepwise analysis this and other
performance indicators (goal attempts, recovered balls, tackles, goalkeeper
saves, and maximal running speed) did not add anything to distance covered
[3545]. I suspect that player position is confounding the relationships:
midfield defenders cover less distance and score less goals, so once the authors
account for player position, a very different finding may emerge. Injury
An
iPod-based application was developed to record a field-based measure of core
stability:
anterior/posterior pelvic tilt during a single-leg raise test. In a
prospective study of 347 minor- and major-league baseball pitchers, those with poor core stability
had 2-3x the risk of at least 30 days of injury, and they had twice as many
days injured. "Team staff found the tool easy to use and incorporate
into their training programs [43]." Poor core stability was associated
with similar risk of injury in collegiate athletes generally in last year's ECSS report. Core training monitored with this test
would be worth implementing. A
custom-made auditory feedback device decreased lateral pressure during
treadmill walking in 10 individuals with chronic ankle instability, but
"long-term effects of using this device should be evaluated before
providing clinical recommendations [531]." There
were numerous sessions devoted to clinical aspects of concussion [A-28, 106-113;
E30, 2369-2371; F-16, 2644-2651]. The presentations were outside the scope of
this article, with the exception of the following three… The
authors of this study of 223 amateur boxers believe they have developed a side-line
questionnaire that is "brief, valid, reliable, and discriminating, as
well as practical" to identify concussion [2371]. A
lighter and less expensive head-impact sensor did a poor job compared
with concurrent measurement with the Head Impact Telemetry System in this
study of 17 middle-school (American?) football players [118]. When
a general warm-up,
placing emphasis on normalizing movement patterns, vestibular ocular reflex,
and ACL injury-prevention exercises, was performed before all practices and
games in a season, there were no concussions in
this grossly underpowered but promising study of 17 Virginian high school
female soccer
players [2370]. Anterior
cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries also featured in multiple
sessions [A-45, 330-363; B-62 972-978; E-14, 2179-2186]. I found these two
presentations relevant to this report… Oral
contraceptive use had a small protective effect on ACL
injury in a case-control study of 12,819 cases of ACL reconstruction, but
only in women
in the two youngest age groups (15-19 y and 20-24 y; odds ratios of 0.82 and
0.89, which would be the same as the hazard ratios) [975]. "Biomechanical
studies have shown that greater dynamic knee valgus is associated with the
development of knee injuries, especially in women [e.g.,
330]." Hence a study of college-age students showing that "these data support
the use of [knee] bracing for activities and sports that involve significant
loading of the knee [337]." But I'd be worried about the brace causing
muscle weakness with long-term use, unless specific strengthening exercises
were included. Nutrition
and Drugs
Five endurance
athletes
(2 men, 3 women) diagnosed as iron-deficient on the basis of low serum
ferritin showed only a transient increase in serum ferritin and no
substantial changes in any other physiological markers or performance following
intravenous iron injections over the following 16 months. "This
[finding] questions the utility of serum ferritin or the cut-off value to
indicate iron deficiency [2932]." Surprisingly, seven track athletes ran 8.8% longer in a short
time-to-exhaustion test (~2.5 min) after a high potassium meal. That's probably ~2% in a
time trial, and it was a clear effect [2060]. Someone please repeat this
study! Try paracetamol for endurance. Compared
with placebo, acetaminophen (paracetamol)
supplementation improved time to exhaustion at VO2max speed by 8.2% (equivalent to ~0.5% in a 7-min time-trial)
in a double-blind crossover with 12 trained runners [1286]. Acute supplementation with betalain,
an antioxidant in beetroot, improved 5-km running performance by 1.4% and
reduced muscle-damage markers, soreness and fatigue in a double-blind
crossover with 15 recreational runners [2871]. Another study worth repeating. Three
months of supplementation with the antioxidant astaxanthan
in a double-blind randomized controlled trial with 20+20 male soccer
players resulted in "improved mucosal immunity in soccer players
probably through reducing oxidative stress… and a significant blunting of the
minor inflammatory response [3336]." N-acetyl
cysteine (NAC) has looked promising as an ergogenic antioxidant
for intense exercise, but it had little effect on repeated-sprint performance
in this crossover study of 18 recreationally active male college students [1284]. Some
bad news for tart
cherry
juice:
apparently there were no effects of this antioxidant on oxidative stress,
inflammation, muscle damage or performance in a placebo controlled trial when
10+10 female collegiate soccer players consumed it for 7 d, with a hard
training session on Day 5 and performance tests on Day 7 [2062]. No data
shown, though. And
is it even bad news for caffeine? When it was consumed in pill or
gum form, the mean power of the 8 trained cyclists in a 16-km time trial
was down by 1.2% or 2.3% compared with placebo pill and gum [3315]. Not
significant, though, and the "trained" cyclists managed only ~200 W
in the test. Let's call it a Type II error. But
consumption of caffeine plus B-group vitamins improved several measures
of golf
performance compared with placebo in a double-blind crossover with 12
caffeine-habituated males with a USGA handicap of 3-10 [3316]. Why vitamin B? A
month of β-alanine
ingestion improved some aspects of performance and a test of cognitive
function in a randomized controlled trial of 9+9 soldiers in an elite combat unit.
P values only [2197]. β-alanine also increased time to
exhaustion in a supra-VO2maximal test by 22% (maybe ~2-3% in time-trial mean
power) compared with placebo in 11+11 female masters cyclists [2200]. Sadly,
sodium bicarbonate
supplementation had a negligible effect on performance in a double-blind
randomized crossover study of nine experienced rock climbers [709]. Chocolate milk before going to sleep
resulted in a 2.4% faster 10-km run compared with a "flavor-matched
placebo" (composition not stated, presumably a eucaloric
sports drink) in eight female runners [1839]. So it's likely beneficial, but
not if you want to "sleep low" to get more adaptation. Results
of a study of the effects of a probiotic supplement and/or α-lipoic acid supplement (an antioxidant) on gut
permeability and Ironman triathlon performance were spread over two
abstracts. It looks like the probiotic does reduce gut permeability somewhat.
Effects on Ironman
performance are a bit suspect, because the data weren't repeated measurements.
Data from a 60-min cycling time trial (which might have been repeated measurements)
showed a benefit for α-lipoic acid but not for
the combined supplement [1294, 1296]. More data needed. Bovine
colostrum
for 8 wk appeared to work better than soy protein for vertical jump (6%) and
shuttle run (9%) (but not arm or leg strength) in a
randomized controlled trial with 29 rugby (union) players [2204]. But whey protein
would be a better best-practice control. In a
pre-post crossover, seven trained athletes (5 cyclists, 2 alpine skiers) experienced a
non-significant 2.5% enhancement of sprint power following consumption of
nitrate-replete vs nitrate-depleted beetroot juice. Analyzed as a post-only
crossover (by me), the effect was a 1.7% impairment. I don't think this
underpowered study does anything to resolve the effect of nitrate [718]. This
study of nitrate
supplementation doesn't add much, either. In a crossover with 17 trained cyclists,
there were no significant differences in performance of a 10-km time trial
following a pre-load between 6 d of supplementation, 1 d of supplementation,
and placebo. Relative to placebo, the effects of 6 d and 1 d on mean power in
the time trial were 1.3% and -0.6% [2199]. So the data are consistent with a
small benefit of 6 d, but the cyclists weren't that exceptional. Top cyclists
would get no benefit, probably. A
meta-analysis of carbohydrate mouth-rinse studies showed
that it had a small effect on endurance performance [1300]. How much of the
effect is attributable to publication bias? The
abbreviations make it almost impenetrable, but it looks tapering did not improve
performance in female runners who did not maintain energy
availability
[3221]. The
results were also impenetrable in a crossover of 16 trained male cyclists,
but the conclusion was clear: "in order to optimize performance,
athletes undertaking repeated high-intensity exercise bouts should ingest glucose
prior to exercise, but not between exercise bouts [3259]." Sleeping
without replenishing low carbohydrate stores (the "sleep low" strategy) had "minimal effects
on sleep quality and basic components of immunity" in a randomized
controlled trial of 11+10 trained athletes [2653], so no side effects with this
strategy. "Carbohydrate
intake during a basketball game may lead to performance improvements
in the latter moments of a game [3261]." Fish
oil
or extra-virgin olive oil? I would have thought they might both be
good for performance, but in a pre-post crossover with 10 trained male cyclists,
mean power in a pre-loaded 15-km time trial after supplementing for 4 wk
declined, but less on fish oil (-1.2%) than on olive oil (-4.4%). Strangely,
distance traveled in the time trial increased on fish oil (1.5%) but declined
on olive oil (-2.9%) [3310]. An underpowered study, or a typo? Talent Development
"Nearly
half of the top 100 nine-year-old swimmers [in the US] continued to excel at an
elite level during late adolescence," and therefore "persistent
participation
may represent a strategic priority [2562]." I can't see how. Does
prior Olympic
or world championship
experience affect performance at future championships? It's an
important question, but it wasn't answered properly in this study of Team USA
athletes between 2000 and 2013 [2807]. What's needed is a
comparison of career performance of athletes with comparable ability who
qualified but did vs didn't go to the Olympics or world
champs first time around. Training
It
looks like serum kynurenine (a precursor of NAD+) could be a
useful marker of overtraining syndrome, to the extent that it
was higher in seven sufferers thereof compared with that in recreational
athletes (3.3 ± 0.9 vs 2.4 ± 0.4 nmol/ml). See the
abstract [749] for the explanation of the possible role of kynurenine. As
per last year's
ECSS meeting,
"the results of this study [of 20+20 male volunteers] provide initial
evidence that the combination of brain endurance training [with a
mentally-fatiguing task] and standard endurance training is more effective
than standard endurance training alone," but of course, "future
studies should investigate… elite endurance athletes [754]." Training
with breath
holding
reduced respiratory muscle fatigue in a controlled trial with 25 elite swimmers,
but "no performance improvements were observed [1335]." Eight
weeks of Pilates
improved balance in a controlled trial of 10+10 archers [2299]. Five
days of sprint training in hypoxia was apparently enough
to improve sprint performance in a randomized controlled trial with 6+6 male
college sprinters
[3055]. If the hypoxia wasn't blinded, it's probably a placebo effect. Interval
training for 7 d in hypoxia vs normoxia
had little effect on anaerobic running performance of 8 female runners
in a crossover with a 5-month washout [3058]. An apparent improvement in VO2max was reported as a difference in significance, so it's not
good evidence of benefit. The
inclusion of ten blood-flow restriction sessions during 6 wk
of strength training produced significantly larger gains in muscle thickness
and cross-sectional area than normal training in a randomized controlled
trial of 9+8 national-level powerlifters, but "no [significant]
differences were observed [or reported] in strength [3088]." An
improvement of 3.1% in 5-km run time followed 10 wk of barefoot running in an uncontrolled
study of nine previously shod runners [3218]. Six
weeks of dynamic
stretching
improved 30-min run distance by 3.4% in 15 runners, but the effect in the
control static group of 15 was apparently not significant and wasn't reported
[3487]. So what about the significance of the difference in the changes? This
kind of reporting is really not on. The Thrower's Ten
Program is designed to exercise the major muscles necessary for
throwing. When 17 elite underwater hockey players performed the exercises 3 d/wk
for 6 wk, there were various improvements in their flicking performance in
this uncontrolled study [3536]. Pitre Bourdon
Compliments
should once again be given to this year's authors of this report for
producing yet another comprehensive ACSM conference summary. With so many concurrent sessions it is often
a difficult task for an attendee to decide on which session to attend.
Combine this with the fact that poster sessions are also run simultaneously,
and attendees can often find themselves short on time and disappointed at
having to miss a session of potential interest. This disappointment can even
turn to frustration when poster presenters fail to put their posters up on
time, or remove them early. The extra 30-minute time slots which posters are
supposed to be displayed before and after the oral sessions are important for
time-poor attendees and those authors who chose not to display their research
for the full time allocation are potentially missing out on an opportunity
for valuable scholarly discussion and perhaps even future collaborations.
Maybe the ACSM organizers could consider adopting a take on the ECSS model by
making the final versions of all posters available on-line after the
conference, rather than just the original submission abstracts. Finally,
as has increasingly been the case at recent ACSM conferences, the number of
presentations focusing on sport performance unfortunately appears to be
dwindling. In order to address this issue, I recommend that we refer back to
Randy Wilber’s recommendations in his comment for last year’s ACSM Conference. Jeni Pearce
There were numerous papers on bicarbonate
supplementation, and probiotics was also popular for poster
presentations. In the two sessions I attended on ergogenic aids, which were
well covered in this review, only one supplement had been tested to see that
it actually contained the ingredients and amounts the manufacturer claimed (green tea)
and were certified for use with athletes who could be tested under the WADA
code. Two studies using vegetable based (sweet potato) sports drinks
with a ratio of glucose: sucrose: fructose (13.5:5.1:5.1 g) reported a
benefit compared to control (water). The beverage was reported to be
palatable and may become commercially available in the future. An enlightening session mentioned
in the review (Dealing with Fraud in Exercise Science) initially focused on
the outrageous claims about food products, weight loss and exercise programs
and several devices (including the Power Balance wristband). A nutrition
example involved oxygenated water, which was shown to work via a placebo
effect (see this link for a popular summary). David Pyne gave an informed presentation on fraud
and its documentation. He presented the AIS fraud policy in detail: areas
covered included accounting and equipment theft, unlawful use of property,
wrongful use of intellectual property, deliberate and dishonest use of
information, and providing false and misleading information. Signs of fraud
include unwillingness to share duties, lifestyle above financial means, and
the provision of gifts. The final presentation in this session focused on journals falsely claiming to be peer reviewed and to meet high scientific standards. Spam emails are used to call for papers, and there is evidence of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate submissions, and self-referencing in articles to increase citations. Prospective authors are often misled by false impact factors. The focus was on open-access journals, but not all such journals are predatory. Jeffery Beall from the University of Colorado in Denver, who presented this section, has an interesting blog on this issue. At ACSM he talked about "paper mills", where papers can be arranged to be written by a third party on any topic. There is currently no law enforcement, these companies operate internationally, and with no subscription to cancel they are a challenge to identify. Acknowledgements:
High Performance Sport NZ commissioned a report from WGH. SLH and DBP
received travel grants from their employers. Published July 2015. ©2015 |