Given the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have contributed to the following Sports Medicine editorial, led by Fabio Sarto at the University of Padova. During COVID-19 home confinement, athletes are likely exposed to some level of detraining (i.e. the partial or complete loss of training-induced morphological and physiological adaptations), as a consequence of insufficient and/or inappropriate training stimuli. Such changes may result in impaired performance and increased injury risk if, upon restart, an appropriate sport-specific reconditioning cannot be granted. With this editorial, we aim to recommend extreme caution in sports programming after the COVID-19 emergency.
Please find links to the full article, the citation, and a brief excerpt below.
Available on ResearchGate here.
Available in full on Sports Medicine here.
Sarto, Fabio, et al. "Impact of potential physiological changes due to COVID-19 home confinement on athlete health protection in elite sports: a call for awareness in sports programming." Sports Medicine 50 (2020): 1417-1419.
A global emergency characterized by a respiratory illness called COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) has spread worldwide in early 2020. Preventive measures to reduce the risk of infection include social distancing and the closing of commercial activities to avoid social gatherings. Elite sport is also tremendously affected: ongoing championships have been suspended and the major international events have been postponed (e.g. Summer Olympics, UEFA European Football Championship). This is the first time since the Second World War that all elite athletes are forced to interrupt competitions. Further, most elite athletes are forced to train at home, on their own and mostly unsupervised...