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Objectives: Describe the injury risk of English youth basketball, comparing game versus training injury incidence and burden.\ud \ud Design: 5 season (2013/14-2018/19) prospective cohort study.\ud \ud Setting: Basketball academy at an English sports college.\ud \ud Participants: Male basketball players (n = 110, mean age; 17.3 ± 0.9 years).\ud \ud Main outcomes measures: Descriptive data regarding game and training injury incidence (injuries per 1000 athlete-exposures (AE)) and burden (severity x incidence) are provided with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Rate ratios (RR; 95% CI) were used to compare outcome measures, with results statistically significant if the 95% CI did not pass 1.0.\ud \ud Results: Fifty-four injuries were sustained during 13,350-AE (1666 games, 9684 training). Game injury incidence (12.0/1000-AE, 95% CI 6.7–17.3) was significantly greater than training injury incidence (2.4/1000-AE, 95% CI 1.4–3.3; RR = 5.1, 95% CI 2.8–9.2). Games had a significantly greater injury burden (216 days absence/1000-AE, 95% CI 121-311) than training (62 days absence/1000-AE, 95% CI 37-88; RR = 3.5, 95% CI 1.9–6.3). The ankle was the most injured body location (37%), whilst over 50% of injuries occurring through contact mechanisms.\ud \ud Conclusion: This study is the most comprehensive description of injury epidemiology in English youth basketball to date. This information can inform evidence-based injury prevention strategies to mitigate risk in this population.

Background\ud Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction has a detrimental impact on athletic performance. Despite rehabilitation guidelines and criterion-based progressions to ensure safe restoration of fundamental physical capacities and maladaptive movement strategies, residual deficits in maximal strength, rate of force development (RFD), power and reactive strength are commonly reported. These combined with associated compensatory inter and intra-limb strategies increase the risk of re-injury.\ud \ud Objective\ud The aim of this article is to examine the relationships between fundamental physical capacities and biomechanical variables during dynamic movement tasks.\ud \ud Design\ud Narrative review\ud \ud Results\ud The available data suggests that quadriceps strength and rate of torque development, explain a moderate portion of the variance in aberrant kinetic and kinematic strategies commonly detected in ACL reconstructed cohorts at who are during the later stages of rehabilitation and RTS\ud \ud Conclusion\ud The available data suggests that quadriceps strength and rate of torque development, explain a moderate portion of the variance in aberrant kinetic and kinematic strategies commonly detected in ACL reconstructed cohorts at who are in the later stages of rehabilitation and RTS

Background\ud Ghrelin is a gut hormone with numerous physiological effects, including the regulation of energy balance, insulin sensitivity, vascular health, and body composition. Acylated (AG) and des-acylated (DAG) ghrelin constitute approximately 22 % and 78 % of total plasma ghrelin (TG), respectively. Alterations in the TG concentration and the AG/DAG ratio may be implicated in conditions involving energy imbalances and insulin resistant states (e.g., metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes mellitus). Exercise is a therapeutic option that can potentially optimize ghrelin levels. Understanding the precise intensity and dose of exercise to optimize ghrelin levels may lead to targeted interventions to restore metabolic regulation in obesity and other clinical conditions.\ud \ud Objective\ud To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of acute exercise on pre-prandial levels of TG, AG, and DAG in healthy adults and to determine if sample demographics or exercise doses moderate such effects.\ud \ud Methods\ud Electronic databases (PubMed, Medline, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar) were searched with articles published through August 2020. The following criteria was determined a priori for article inclusion: (i) the study was a randomized controlled trial (RCT),(ii) exercise was an acute bout, (iii) the exercise bout for the intervention group(s)/condition was structured, (iv) the control group/condition received no exercise, (v) participants were adults age 18 or older, (vi) ghrelin was sampled through blood, (vii) there was at least one baseline measure and one post-exercise measure of ghrelin, (viii) there were at least 3 timepoints where ghrelin was measured while participants were fasted to allow for pre-prandial total area-under-the-curve (AUCtotal) calculation, (ix) participants were healthy with no overt disease, (x) interventions were carried out without any environmental manipulations. Standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95 % confidence intervals were calculated using the restricted maximum likelihood estimation Moderator analyses to determine whether the overall pooled effect was influenced by: sex, ghrelin form, method of ghrelin analysis, age, body mass index, body fat percentage, fitness, intensity of exercise bout, duration of exercise bout, energy expenditure, and length of AUCtotal data.\ud \ud Results\ud The analysis included 24 studies that consisted of 52 trials, n = 504 (age 27.0 (8.8) years, BMI 24.7 (2.7) kg/m2) and measured AG (n = 38 trials), DAG (n = 7), and TG (n = 7). The overall model indicated that exercise lowered ghrelin levels compared to control (no exercise); (SMD=-0.44, p < 0.001), and exercise intensity exhibited an inverse relationship with ghrelin levels (regression coefficient (ß)=-0.016, p = 0.04). There was no significant difference by ghrelin form (p = 0.18).\ud \ud Discussion\ud Acute exercise significantly lowers plasma ghrelin levels, with higher intensity exercise associated with greater ghrelin suppression. The majority of studies applied a moderate intensity exercise bout and measured AG, with limited data on DAG. This exercise dose may be clinically significant in individuals with metabolic dysregulation and energy imbalance as a therapy to optimize AG levels. More work is needed to compare moderate and high intensity exercise and the ghrelin response in clinical populations.

Dietary inorganic nitrate supplementation causes physiological effects which may enhance exercise tolerance. However it is not known whether nitrate might alter cognitive function during exercise. In a double-blind, cross-over study, sixteen subjects ingested either nitrate-rich beetroot juice or a placebo and completed a continuous cycle exercise test involving 20min stages at 50% and 70% V˙O2peak and a final stage at 90% V˙O2peak until volitional exhaustion. Cognitive tasks were completed before, during and after exercise. In the dietary nitrate condition: plasma [nitrite] increased (p