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    Ultra-Cycling- Past, Present, Future: A Narrative Review
    (SpringerOpen, 2024-04-29) Tiemeier, Lucas; Nikolaidis, Pantelis T.; Chlíbková, Daniela; Wilhelm, Matthias; Thuany, Mabliny; Weiss, Katja; Knechtle, Beat
    Background: Ultra-endurance events are gaining popularity in multiple exercise disciplines, including cycling. With increasing numbers of ultra-cycling events, aspects influencing participation and performance are of interest to the cycling community. Main body: The aim of this narrative review was, therefore, to assess the types of races offered, the characteristics of the cyclists, the fluid and energy balance during the race, the body mass changes after the race, and the parameters that may enhance performance based on existing literature. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar using the search terms 'ultracycling', 'ultra cycling', 'ultra-cycling', 'ultra-endurance biking', 'ultra-bikers' and 'prolonged cycling'. The search yielded 948 results, of which 111 were relevant for this review. The studies were classified according to their research focus and the results were summarized. The results demonstrated changes in physiological parameters, immunological and oxidative processes, as well as in fluid and energy balance. While the individual race with the most published studies was the Race Across America, most races were conducted in Europe, and a trend for an increase in European participants in international races was observed. Performance seems to be affected by characteristics such as age and sex but not by anthropometric parameters such as skin fold thickness. The optimum age for the top performance was around 40 years. Most participants in ultra-cycling events were male, but the number of female athletes has been increasing over the past years. Female athletes are understudied due to their later entry and less prominent participation in ultra-cycling races. A post-race energy deficit after ultra-cycling events was observed. Conclusion: Future studies need to investigate the causes for the observed optimum race age around 40 years of age as well as the optimum nutritional supply to close the observed energy gap under consideration of the individual race lengths and conditions. Another research gap to be filled by future studies is the development of strategies to tackle inflammatory processes during the race that may persist in the post-race period.
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    Neuromuscular Assessment of a Stand-Up Paddle Stroke
    (MDPI, 2023-12-14) Freitas, Joo Diogo; Conceiço, Ana; Šťastný, Jan; Louro, Hugo; Leito, Luís; Tores, Diana; Marinho, Daniel Almeida; Neiva, Henrique P.
    This study analyzed muscle activity during the stand-up paddle stroke, considering the paddling side and the adjacent and opposing muscles relative to the position of the arms during paddling. Methods: Fourteen male paddleboarders performed three trials covering 195 m in which surface electromyography of the upper trapezius, biceps brachii, triceps brachii, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius medialis were recorded (four-cycle strokes on each side). The data were processed according to percentage of maximum voluntary contraction (% MVC). The MVC activation values (mu V) for each muscle were then calculated and presented as percentage MVC (% MVC). Results: The recovery phase accounted for 60% of the paddle cycle, while the pull phase represented 39%. During right-side paddling, higher % MVC was found in the opposite-side upper trapezius (24.35%, p < 0.01) during the pulling phase and in the adjacent biceps brachii (8.36%, p < 0.03) during the recovery phase. In left-side paddling, greater % MVC was found in the opposite-side upper trapezius (27.60%, p < 0.01) during the pulling phase and in the opposite-side triceps brachii (42.25%, p < 0.04) during the recovery phase. Furthermore, the pulling phase exhibited higher MVC in the opposite-side upper trapezius compared to the recovery phase, both in the right-side (24.35%, p < 0.03) and left-side (27.60%, p < 0.01) paddling. Conclusions: these findings help establish the muscular activity of both sides of the paddling technique and the differences between the upper and lower limbs.
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    Verification of reliability of measurement systems for swimming analysis
    (UNIV ALICANTE, 2021-03-31) Bátorová, Michaela; Šťastný, Jan; Elfmark, Milan; Janura, Miroslav
    Sophisticated technologies and measuring devices are increasingly being used for the analysis of performance and swimming techniques. At BUT, the Tachograph II and Swimming Inertial Measure Unit (SwIMU) measuring systems were developed for swimming analysis. To evaluate the measured data, the SwimDataViewer software was developed for both measuring systems. To verify the reliability of the Tachograph, 34 race swimmers were measured (15 F, 19 M), and 28 race swimmers (16 M, 12 F) were measured with SwIMU. All swimmers swam a 6x25m front crawl. Pullout and the first three and last two strokes of the arms were not included in the data evaluation. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to verify the reliability of the monitored parameters. The values of measured parameters in the front crawl for Tachograph (SwIMU) were ICC = 0.992 (0.991) for the average value of speed, ICC = 0.958 (0.960) for efficiency, ICC = 0.971 (0.988) for the frequency of the arms, and finally, ICC = 0.978 (0.992) for the frequency of the legs. The ICC coefficient for all monitored parameters in both devices showed a high degree of reliability. From this perspective, both devices are suitable for use in coaching and research practice.
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    Arm–leg coordination during the underwater pull-out sequence in the 50, 100 and 200 m breaststroke start
    (Elsevier, 2021-08-12) Olstad, Bjrn H.; Gonjo, Tomohiro; Conceiço, Ana; Šťastný, Jan; Seifert, Ludovic
    To investigate the arm-leg coordination from different perspectives of motor control during the underwater start sequence to understand whether differences exist between the three competitive breaststroke swimming events.
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    Training, anthropometric and physiological characteristics in men recreational marathon runners: The role of sport experience
    (Frontiers, 2021-03-15) Nikolaidis, Pantelis T.; Chlíbková, Daniela; Clemente-Suárez, Vicente Javier; Knechtle, Beat
    The aim of the present study was to examine physiological and training characteristics in marathon runners with different sport experience (defined as the number of finishes in marathon races).The anthropometry and physiological characteristics of men recreational endurance runners with three or less finishes in marathon races (novice group, NOV; n=69, age 43.5±8.0 years) and four or more finishes (experienced group, EXP; n=66, 45.2±9.4 years) were compared. EXP had faster personal best marathon time (3:44±0:36 vs. 4:20±0:44 h:min, p<0.001, respectively), lower flexibility (15.9±9.3 vs. 19.3±15.9 cm, p=0.022), abdominal (20.6±7.9 vs. 23.8±9.0 mm, p=0.030) and iliac crest skinfold thickness(16.7±6.7 vs. 19.9±7.9 mm, p=0.013), body fat assessed by bioimpedance analysis (13.0±4.4 vs. 14.6±4.7%, p=0.047), more weekly training days (4.6±1.4 vs. 4.1±1.0 days, p=0.038) and longer weekly running distance (58.8±24.0 vs.47.2±16.1 km, p=0.001) than NOV. The findings indicated that long-term marathon training might induce adaptations in endurance performance, body composition and flexibility.