Abstract Objective To profile training habits and injuries in football players participating in a national Masters tournament. Methods A cross-sectional retrospective study design was used to survey ...male football players attending the 2008 New Zealand Masters Games. Information regarding player demographics, football injuries, football related training, and risk factors for injury were collected. Results 199 Players were recruited, with a median age of 44 yrs (range 35–73) and a median football playing history of 15 yrs (range 0–66). Irrespective of age, 112 (84%) players included a warm-up and 104 (78%) included a stretching regime in their regular training programme. In the 12 months prior to the tournament, 128 football related injuries were reported by 93 players (64 injuries/100 players or 46 injured players/100 players). The most frequently injured region was the lower limb; specifically the lower leg ( n = 23), ankle ( n = 18), hamstring ( n = 17), knee ( n = 15), and Achilles tendon ( n = 15). Conclusion This study provides a preliminary insight into the training habits and injury profiles of Masters football players. Despite all players including some form of injury prevention strategy in their training, a significant number of players experienced an injury in the 12 months prior to the tournament.
The in vivo pathomechanics of osteoarthritis (OA) at the knee is described in a framework that is based on an analysis of studies describing assays of biomarkers, cartilage morphology, and human ...function (gait analysis). The framework is divided into an Initiation Phase and a Progression Phase. The Initiation Phase is associated with kinematic changes that shift load bearing to infrequently loaded regions of the cartilage that cannot accommodate the loads. The Progression Phase is defined following cartilage breakdown. During the Progression Phase, the disease progresses more rapidly with increased load. While this framework was developed from an analysis of in vivo pathomechanics, it also explains how the convergence of biological, morphological, and neuromuscular changes to the musculoskeletal system during aging or during menopause lead to the increased rate of idiopathic OA with aging. Understanding the in vivo response of articular cartilage to its physical environment requires an integrated view of the problem that considers functional, anatomical, and biological interactions. The integrated in vivo framework presented here will be helpful for the interpretation of laboratory experiments as well as for the development of new methods for the evaluation of OA at the knee.
Aim of the present study was to determine whether the association between obesity and physical fitness in children and adolescents is age- and sex-specific.
A total of 4519 children and adolescents ...aged 4-17 years grouped by age (4-5, 6-10, 11-13 and 14-17 years), sex and BMI (normal-weight: BMI≤90th percentile; overweight: BMI>90th percentile; adipose: BMI>97th percentile) participated in this large-scale representative cross-sectional study. Endurance, strength, flexibility and fine and gross motor coordination was measured using the following physical fitness tests: PWC170, push-ups test, standing long-jumps, side-to-side jumps, one-minute single leg stance on the dominant leg, balancing backwards on three beams of different width, lowest point reached by the fingertips while standing on a box with legs extended, reaction to colour changes of traffic light, tracing lines without touching the rim and sorting 25 pens.
Overweight and obese boys and girls had lower physical fitness values describing endurance, strength and gross motor coordination than normal-weight boys and girls, respectively (P<0.001 for all; boys: -12% and -19%, respectively; girls: -9% and -19%, respectively). Differences in physical fitness between weight groups were greater in older groups (P<0.001). Fine motor skills and flexibility values did not differ between weight groups.
The disparity in physical fitness, in particular in endurance, strength and gross motor coordination, between obese and normalweight is greater in adolescents than in children. Physical fitness programs are warranted for all overweight and obese children and adolescents but especially for overweight and obese adolescents.
Retraining walking in patients after hip or knee arthroplasty is an important component of rehabilitation especially in older persons whose social interactions are influenced by their level of ...mobility. The objective of this study was to test the effect of an intensive inpatient rehabilitation program on walking speed and gait symmetry in patients after hip arthroplasty (THA) using inertial sensor technology.
Twenty-nine patients undergoing a 4-week inpatient rehabilitation program following THA and 30 age-matched healthy subjects participated in this study. Walking speed and gait symmetry parameters were measured using inertial sensor device for standardized walking trials (2*20.3 m in a gym) at their self-selected normal and fast walking speeds on postoperative days 15, 21, and 27 in patients and in a single session in control subjects. Walking speed was measured using timing lights. Gait symmetry was determined using autocorrelation calculation of the cranio-caudal (CC) acceleration signals from an inertial sensor placed at the lower spine.
Walking speed and gait symmetry improved from postoperative days 15-27 (speed, female: 3.2 and 4.5 m/s; male: 4.2 and 5.2 m/s; autocorrelation, female: 0.77 and 0.81; male: 0.70 and 0.79; P <0.001 for all). After the 4-week rehabilitation program, walking speed and gait symmetry were still lower than those in control subjects (speed, female 4.5 m/s vs. 5.7 m/s; male: 5.2 m/s vs. 5.3 m/s; autocorrelation, female: 0.81 vs. 0.88; male: 0.79 vs. 0.90; P <0.001 for all).
While patients with THA improved their walking capacity during a 4-week inpatient rehabilitation program, subsequent intensive gait training is warranted for achieving normal gait symmetry. Inertial sensor technology may be a useful tool for evaluating the rehabilitation process during the post-inpatient period.
To test the hypothesis that physiological cyclic loading during a 30-min walking exercise causes an increase in serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) concentration in a healthy population.
...Blood samples (5
ml) were drawn from 10 physically active adults immediately before and after, and 0.5
h, 1.5
h, 3.5
h and 5.5
h after a 30-min walking exercise on a level outdoor walking track at self-selected normal speed. On a separate day, blood samples were drawn from the same 10 subjects during 6
h while they were resting in a chair. Serum COMP concentrations were determined using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (COMP
® ELISA). An activity monitor was used to record basic time–distance measurements of gait. Serum COMP concentrations within the exercise protocol and within the resting protocol were compared using separate repeated measures analyses of variance (
α
=
0.05).
In the exercise protocol, a first increase (9.7%;
P
=
0.003) occurred immediately after the walking exercise. A second increase in serum COMP concentration (7.0%;
P
=
0.024) occurred 5.5
h after the walking exercise. In the resting protocol, the concentration at baseline was significantly higher than at all subsequent time points (8.2%;
P
<
0.050). Serum COMP concentration decreased from the 3.5-h to the 5.5-h sample (−4.8%;
P
=
0.012).
Even a moderate walking activity can significantly influence serum COMP concentration. The immediate response points to a diffusion time of COMP fragments from cartilage to the blood of 30
min or less. The response at 5.5
h indicates a metabolic delay for COMP in the range of 5
h to 6
h.
Cartilage transverse relaxation time (T2) has been reported to be sensitive to OA-related changes in cartilage composition, but no study previously reported reference values for femorotibial (FTJ) ...cartilage T2 side-to-side differences for persons with or without previous ACL injury. Since articular cartilage extracellular matrix has a layered organization, this study focused on laminar (deep and superficial) T2 cartilage times.
To assess 1) whether laminar cartilage T2 obtained in two different age groups differs between ACL-injured and contralateral knees and 2) whether between-knee differences differ between ACL injured and healthy controls of the two age groups. In addition, we report laminar T2 thresholds for between-knee differences of healthy controls.
85 participants in four groups (20–30 years healthy, HEA20–30, n=24; 20–30 years ACL injured, ACL20–30, n=23; 40–60 years healthy, HEA40–60, n=24; 40–60 years ACL injured, ACL40–60, n=14) completed data collection. ACL injured participants had a unilateral ACL injury 2–10 years before inclusion. MRIs of HEA left (HEA_l) and right (HEA_r) or ACL injured (ACL_in) and uninjured (ACL_unin) side were acquired using a quantitative 3D DESS sequence (in plane resolution 0.3125*0.3125mm, slice thickness 1.5mm, resolution 512*512, TR 17 ms, TE1 4.85ms, TE2 9.75 ms, FA 15°). Weight-bearing FTJ cartilage plates were manually segmented by Chondrometrics into deep 50% (.D) and superficial 50% (.S) zones and total (.T) cartilage. Between-knee differences in T2 for the FTJ (dif_FTJ) were computed from T2 means (HEA_l–HEA_r or ACL_in–ACL_unin). Nonparametric Dunn and Conover-Iman tests were used for between-group and between-knee comparisons, respectively. Holm correction was used to adjust for multiple comparisons (P<0.05). 80% thresholds for detecting differences between knees were computed from healthy participants as mean(dif_FTJ HEA20–30) ± 1.28*SD(dif_FTJ HEA20–30), and the numbers of participants showing differences in each group exceeding these thresholds were obtained.
Deep zone T2 was longer in ACL_in than in ACL_unin and HEA knees (Fig. A). Between-knee differences were only bigger in ACL20–30 and ACL40–60 than in HEA20–30 or HEA40–60 for deep zone dif_FTJ (Fig. B) and not for superficial dif_FTJ (Fig. C) or total dif_FTJ (Fig. D). For deep zone dif_FTJ, the number of participants outside the 80% threshold limits of -1.57 to 1.60 ms was 3/24 (12.5 %) for HEA20–30, 15/23 for (65.2 %) for ACL20–30, 5/24 (20.8 %) for HEA40–60 and 11/14 (78.6 %) for ACL40–60.
Elevated FTJ deep zone T2 2 to 10 years after ACL injury (with or without surgical ACL reconstruction) suggests a reduction in cartilage quality (i.e. alterations in cartilage composition and mechanics) after trauma. Comparable deep zone dif_FTJ after ACL injury for both age groups suggests that trauma affects cartilage quality in both groups equally. We conclude that the effects of ACL injury were most pronounced in deep zone T2 and most ACL injured participants showed between-knee differences outside the threshold limits for healthy articular cartilage.
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