The main focus of this review is illness among elite athletes, how and why it occurs, and whether any measures can be taken to combat it or to prevent its onset. In particular, there is particular interest in exercise-induced immunodepression, which is a result of the immune system regarding exercise (e.g., prolonged, exhaustive exercise) as a challenge to its function. This promotes the inflammatory response. There is often a high incidence of illness in athletes after undertaking strenuous exercise, particularly among those competing in endurance events, not only mainly in terms of upper respiratory tract illness, but also involving gastrointestinal problems. It may well be that this high incidence is largely due to insufficient recovery time being allowed after, for example, a marathon, a triathlon, or other endurance events. Two examples of the incidence of upper respiratory tract illness in moderate versus endurance exercise are provided. In recent years, increasing numbers of research studies have investigated the origins, symptoms, and incidence of these bouts of illness and have attempted to alleviate the symptoms with supplements, sports foods, or immunonutrition. One aspect of the present review discusses iron deficiency, which has been primarily suggested to have an impact upon cell-mediated immunity. Immunonutrition is also discussed, as are new techniques for investigating links between metabolism and immune function.
Search Results
Exercise-Induced Illness and Inflammation: Can Immunonutrition and Iron Help?
Lindy M. Castell, David C. Nieman, Stéphane Bermon, and Peter Peeling
Quantification of Training and Competition Loads in Endurance Sports: Methods and Applications
Iñigo Mujika
Training quantification is basic to evaluate an endurance athlete’s responses to training loads, ensure adequate stress/recovery balance, and determine the relationship between training and performance. Quantifying both external and internal workload is important, because external workload does not measure the biological stress imposed by the exercise sessions. Generally used quantification methods include retrospective questionnaires, diaries, direct observation, and physiological monitoring, often based on the measurement of oxygen uptake, heart rate, and blood lactate concentration. Other methods in use in endurance sports include speed measurement and the measurement of power output, made possible by recent technological advances such as power meters in cycling and triathlon. Among subjective methods of quantification, rating of perceived exertion stands out because of its wide use. Concurrent assessments of the various quantification methods allow researchers and practitioners to evaluate stress/recovery balance, adjust individual training programs, and determine the relationships between external load, internal load, and athletes’ performance. This brief review summarizes the most relevant external- and internal-workload-quantification methods in endurance sports and provides practical examples of their implementation to adjust the training programs of elite athletes in accordance with their individualized stress/recovery balance.
Gastrointestinal Complaints in Relation to Dietary Intake in Triathletes
Nancy J. Rehrer, Monique van Kemenade, Wineke Meester, Fred Brouns, and Wim H.M. Saris
This study examined the relationship between gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and dietary intake in triathletes. Fifty-five male triathletes (age 31 ±6 yrs) were surveyed regarding the most recently completed half Iron Man triathlon. Questions were asked regarding GI symptoms and dietary intake. Fifty-two percent complained of eructation and 48% of flatulence. Other symptoms were abdominal bloating, vomiting urge, vomiting, nausea, stomachache, intestinal cramps, and diarrhea. More symptoms occurred while running than at other times. All individuals who had eaten within 30 min of the start vomited while swimming. Fat and protein intake was greater in those who vomited or had the urge to vomit than in those without these symptoms. Of the former, 93% had consumed a hypertonic beverage. Forty percent of those who drank a hypertonic beverage and only 11% of those who drank an iso-or hypotonic beverage had severe complaints. Four of five individuals with stomachache had consumed a strongly hypertonic beverage. All subjects with intestinal cramps had eaten fiber-rich foods in the pre race meal; only 10% of those without cramps had done so.
The Effectiveness of Compression Socks for Athletic Performance and Recovery
Justin M. Stanek
Clinical Scenario:
The popularity of compression socks has increased substantially among athletes, particularly those participating in endurance events such as running and triathlon. Companies are increasingly marketing compression stockings to runners, triathletes, and other endurance athletes for the benefits of improved performance and/or decreased recovery time. Originally developed for the treatment of deep-vein thrombosis, compression socks are now marketed as a tool to improve venous return, thus believed to improve both performance and recovery in athletes. The use of compression socks during training aims to help the skeletal-muscle pump, increase deep venous velocity, and/or decrease blood pooling in the calf veins and alleviate delayed-onset muscle soreness. The scenario is a 28-y-old recreational triathlete seeking your advice while training for her first half-Ironman. She occasionally complains of tightness in the calves both during and after running. She wants your opinion on the effectiveness of using compression socks to help her performance and recovery.
Focused Clinical Question:
What is the effectiveness of using graduated compression socks for improving athletic performance and decreasing recovery time in healthy endurance athletes?
Perfectionistic Profiles Among Elite Athletes and Differences in Their Motivational Orientations
Daniel F. Gucciardi, John Mahoney, Geoffrey Jalleh, Robert J. Donovan, and Jarred Parkes
Although there is an emerging body of research that has examined perfectionistic clusters in the general population, few studies have explored such profiles in athlete samples. The purposes of this research were to explore perfectionistic profiles within a sample of elite athletes and the differences between them on key motivational variables. A sample of 423 elite athletes (179 males, 244 females) aged between 14 and 66 years (M = 25.64; SD = 8.57) from a variety of team (e.g., rowing, hockey, baseball, rugby) and individual sports (e.g., cycling, athletics, triathlon, gymnastics) completed a multisection questionnaire including measures of sport perfectionism, motivation regulation, achievement goals, and fear of failure. Cluster analyses revealed the existence of three perfectionism profiles, namely, nonperfectionists, maladaptive perfectionists, and adaptive perfectionists. Subsequent analyses generally supported the robustness of these perfectionism profiles in terms of differential motivational orientations (achievement goals, fear of failure, and motivation regulation) in hypothesized directions. Overall, the differences in motivational orientations between the three clusters supported a categorical conceptualization of perfectionism.
Sex Differences in Athletic Performance
Lynda B. Ransdell and Christine L. Wells
Do women out-perform men in endurance sports? Are women as strong, pound for pound, as men? Many questions have been raised about the ability of women and men to perform physical tasks equally well. The issue of sex differences and similarities in performance has considerable significance today as women seek physically demanding careers in police-work, fire-fighting, the military, industry, and athletics. As more women participate in recreational and career opportunities formerly open only to men, knowledge about sex differences in response to physical exertion and training becomes increasingly important. In this paper we describes differences between the sexes in athletic performance.
Most performance differences are due to variations in morphological (structural) or physiological characteristics typical of women and men (Wells, 1991). Nevertheless, variations in these characteristics are often as large or larger within each sex as they are between the sexes. The same is true of physical performance. Thus, when the entire population is considered, there are extensive differences in performance within each sex, and considerable overlap in performance between the sexes.
We will base our examination of performance differences on the most outstanding performances of each sex: those exemplified by World Records in athletic events. We seek to answer such questions as: How large are sex differences in world record performances? Can existing performance differences be explained entirely by biological differences between the sexes? Or, are a large portion of these performance differ-ences attributable to sociocultural factors?
We will analyze sex differences in performance relative to the human energy system. This system allows an extraordinary range of mechanisms for neuromuscular coordination and metabolism. Because of this, the human has a virtually unlimited movement repertoire and is capable of movements requiring large bursts of energy over very brief periods of time, as well as movements requiring low levels of energy production over very long periods of time. We will progress from sports that require very high intensity and explosive quality movements such as jumping and power lifting, through the “energy spectrum” to feats of endurance such as marathon running, ultra-distance triathlon, and open-water distance swimming.
Due to our desire to focus this paper on a reasonable amount of data, our analysis will be limited as follows:
1) for sex differences in high intensity-brief duration, explosive per-formance, we will discuss the high jump, long jump, and various mea-sures of strength (powerlifting),
2) for sex differences in high intensity-short duration performance, we will present data on sprint running (100m, 400m) and swimming (100m),
3) for sex differences in moderate intensity-moderate duration performance, we will discuss middle-distance running (1500m, 5000m, 10,000m), and swimming (1500m), and
4) for differences in low intensity-long duration performance, we will discuss the marathon, the "Ironman Triathlon," and open ocean distance swimming.
Postexercise Dietary Protein Strategies to Maximize Skeletal Muscle Repair and Remodeling in Masters Endurance Athletes: A Review
Thomas M. Doering, Peter R. Reaburn, Stuart M. Phillips, and David G. Jenkins
Participation rates of masters athletes in endurance events such as long-distance triathlon and running continue to increase. Given the physical and metabolic demands of endurance training, recovery practices influence the quality of successive training sessions and, consequently, adaptations to training. Research has suggested that, after muscle-damaging endurance exercise, masters athletes experience slower recovery rates in comparison with younger, similarly trained athletes. Given that these discrepancies in recovery rates are not observed after non–muscle-damaging exercise, it is suggested that masters athletes have impairments of the protein remodeling mechanisms within skeletal muscle. The importance of postexercise protein feeding for endurance athletes is increasingly being acknowledged, and its role in creating a positive net muscle protein balance postexercise is well known. The potential benefits of postexercise protein feeding include elevating muscle protein synthesis and satellite cell activity for muscle repair and remodeling, as well as facilitating muscle glycogen resynthesis. Despite extensive investigation into age-related anabolic resistance in sedentary aging populations, little is known about how anabolic resistance affects postexercise muscle protein synthesis and thus muscle remodeling in aging athletes. Despite evidence suggesting that physical training can attenuate but not eliminate age-related anabolic resistance, masters athletes are currently recommended to consume the same postexercise dietary protein dose (approximately 20 g or 0.25 g/kg/meal) as younger athletes. Given the slower recovery rates of masters athletes after muscle-damaging exercise, which may be due to impaired muscle remodeling mechanisms, masters athletes may benefit from higher doses of postexercise dietary protein, with particular attention directed to the leucine content of the postexercise bolus.
Energy Deficiency, Menstrual Disturbances, and Low Bone Mass: What Do Exercising Australian Women Know About the Female Athlete Triad?
Stephanie M. Miller, Sonja Kukuljan, Anne I. Turner, Paige van der Pligt, and Gaele Ducher
Purpose:
Prevention of the female athlete triad is essential to protect female athletes’ health. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of regularly exercising adult women in Australia toward eating patterns, menstrual cycles, and bone health.
Methods:
A total of 191 female exercisers, age 18–40 yr, engaging in ≥2 hr/wk of strenuous activity, completed a survey. After 11 surveys were excluded (due to incomplete answers), the 180 participants were categorized into lean-build sports (n = 82; running/athletics, triathlon, swimming, cycling, dancing, rowing), non-lean-build sports (n = 94; basketball, netball, soccer, hockey, volleyball, tennis, trampoline, squash, Australian football), or gym/fitness activities (n = 4).
Results:
Mean (± SD) training volume was 9.0 ± 5.5 hr/wk, with participants competing from local up to international level. Only 10% of respondents could name the 3 components of the female athlete triad. Regardless of reported history of stress fracture, 45% of the respondents did not think that amenorrhea (absence of menses for ≥3 months) could affect bone health, and 22% of those involved in lean-build sports would do nothing if experiencing amenorrhea (vs. 3.2% in non-lean-build sports, p = .005). Lean-build sports, history of amenorrhea, and history of stress fracture were all significantly associated with not taking action in the presence of amenorrhea (all p < .005).
Conclusions:
Few active Australian women are aware of the detrimental effects of menstrual dysfunction on bone health. Education programs are needed to prevent the female athlete triad and ensure that appropriate actions are taken by athletes when experiencing amenorrhea.
Driving Change? Field Containment of Gender Equality Committees in International Sports Governance
Lucie Schoch and Madeleine Pape
). This is in spite of GECs being among the most widely adopted gender equality interventions in international sport ( Henry & Robinson, 2010 ; Matthews & Piggott, 2021 ). In this study, we examine the GECs of World Triathlon and the International Hockey Federation (FIH), which are the peak governing
Hydration and Performance in Young Triathletes During a Competition in Tropical Climate
Anita M. Rivera-Brown and Patricia Pagán-Lassalle
Triathlon competitions for youth are often held in hot/humid tropical locations in the Americas. Junior age division (16–19 y) triathletes compete in the sprint distance (750-m swim, 20-km bike, and 5-km run), which is a high-intensity exertion event. During competition, the high metabolic heat
