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Purpose: Antarctic expeditions are exceptional physiological challenges. Sleep plays a critical role in athletic performance, recovery, and wellness, with sleep disturbances having a negative impact on health and performance. Methods: The authors investigated sleep, fatigue, and recovery profiles of the longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey across Antarctica. A 33-year-old woman covered 1484.53 km from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole, finishing at the Ross Ice Shelf, in 70 days and 16 hours. Questionnaires on sleep (Pittsburgh Insomnia Rating Scale and Karolinska Sleepiness Scale), fatigue (Subjective Assessment of Fatigue), recovery (Total Quality Recovery), and wellness were completed at different time points (before, during, and after the expedition). Results: Average daily sleep time was between 4 and 5 hours, increasing to 7 hours for the final part of the expedition. Satisfaction of sleep and lack of energy deteriorated as the expedition progressed, alongside signs of clinical insomnia. Fatigue and muscle soreness increased with increasing milage, with extreme levels and very poor recovery toward the end of the expedition. Despite this, the adventurer continued to perform on extremely high levels. Postexpedition scores returned to baseline, demonstrating the incredible adaptation and ability to recovery. The postexpedition interview showed that prior experience of an Antarctic expedition may have prepared the athlete and made her more resilient for this challenge. Conclusions: The data provide unique insights into Antarctic expeditions and may help us understand the limits of human performance when planning future expeditions of this nature. Female athletes are capable of extreme challenges, breaking established performance boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Prediction of athlete wellness is difficult—or, many sports-medicine practitioners and scientists would argue, impossible. Instead, one settles for correlational relationships of variables gathered at fixed moments in time. The issue may be an inherent mismatch between usual methods of data collection and analysis and the complex nature of the variables governing athlete wellness. Variables such as external load, stress, muscle soreness, and sleep quality may affect each other and wellness in a dynamic, nonlinear, way over time. In such an environment, traditional data-collection methods and statistics will fail to capture causal effects. If we are to move this area of sport science forward, a different approach is required. Methods: We analyzed data from 2 different soccer teams that showed no significance between player load and wellness or among individual measures of wellness. Our analysis used methods of attractor reconstruction to examine possible causal relationships between GPS/accelerometer-measured external training load and wellness variables. Results: Our analysis showed that player self-rated stress, a component of wellness, seems a fundamental driving variable. The influence of stress is so great that stress can predict other components of athlete wellness, and, in turn, self-rated stress can be predicted by observing a player's load data. Conclusion: We demonstrate the ability of nonlinear methods to identify interactions between and among variables to predict future athlete stress. These relationships are indicative of the causal relationships playing out in athlete wellness over the course of a soccer season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This meta-analysis aimed to (1) provide a comparison of peak changes in indirect markers of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) in youths versus adults and (2) determine if the involved limb moderated this effect. Method: Studies were eligible for inclusion if they (1) provided a human youth versus adult comparison; (2) provided data on muscle strength, soreness, or creatine kinase markers beyond ≥24 hours; and (3) did not provide a recovery treatment. Effect sizes (ES) were presented alongside 95% confidence intervals. Results: EIMD exhibited larger effects on adults than in youths for muscle strength (ES = −2.01; P <.001), muscle soreness (ES = −1.52; P <.001), and creatine kinase (ES = −1.98; P <.001). The random effects meta-regression indicated that the effects of upper- and lower-limb exercise in youths and adults were significant for muscle soreness (coefficient estimate = 1.11; P <.001) but not for muscle strength or creatine kinase (P >.05). As such, the between-group effects for muscle soreness (ES = −2.10 vs −1.03; P <.05) were greater in the upper than lower limbs. Conclusion: The magnitude of EIMD in youths is substantially less than in their adult counterparts, and this effect is greater in upper than lower limbs for muscle soreness. These findings help guide practitioners who may be concerned about the potential impact of EIMD when training youth athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) is an important component of total daily energy expenditure; however, it is currently not understood how it varies across a typical competitive match week in professional soccer players. For the first time, we aimed to assess RMR throughout an in-season competitive week in professional soccer players. Additionally, we aimed to assess energy and carbohydrate intake across the same week. Twenty-four professional soccer players from an English Premier League club (age: 18 ± 1.6 years) completed the study. RMR was assessed each morning of a typical competitive match week (match day [MD] −3, −2, −1, +1, +2, and + 3), and dietary intake (including MD) was assessed daily via the remote food photography method and 24-hr recall. Daily training load was quantified using Global Positioning System, daily muscle soreness ratings were recorded, and body composition was assessed via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. There was a significant (p =.0004) increase in mean RMR of ∼261 kcal/day on MD + 1, compared with MD − 1. Additionally, volume of oxygen consumed significantly increased at MD + 1 (p =.0002) versus MD − 1. There were no significant differences in daily energy or carbohydrate intake across the competitive week (p >.05), with inadequate carbohydrate intakes on MD − 1 (∼3.9 g/kg body mass), MD (∼4.2 g/kg body mass), and MD + 1 (∼3.6 g/kg body mass) in relation to current recommendations. We report, for the first time, that RMR is significantly increased following a competitive match in professional soccer players. In addition, we confirm previous findings to reinforce that players exhibit inadequate nutrition periodization practices, which may impair physical performance and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at comprehensively reviewing olfactory and gustatory disorders caused by SARS-CoV-2 in children and adults. An electronic and manual search was done on three data bases: MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria included publications written in English, involving humans in the age range of 0 to 99 years that were captured by a controlled vocabulary of thesaurus terms. Olfactory and gustatory disorders rates in COVID-19 ranged from 22% to 71.9% in adults and 16.6% to 25.8% in children. Olfactory and gustatory disorders might appear as the first symptom, and in adults might even be the only symptom (4.8% to 10%). Anosmia is the most common olfactory disorder and hypogeusia is the most common gustatory disorder. In 33% to 89% of cases, olfactory and gustatory disorders resolve spontaneously within a few weeks, coinciding with the resolution of other COVID-19 symptoms, both in adults and children. However, in some patients, olfactory and gustatory disorders persist beyond the resolution of other symptoms. Notably, children generally experience a swifter and more favorable recovery compared to adults. The precise pathogenesis underlying olfactory and gustatory disorders in the context of COVID-19 remains unclear and is likely multifactorial. Presently, no established treatment protocol exists for olfactory and gustatory disorders and current treatments reviewed lack robust evidence and are not readily available for clinical use. Olfactory training represents the only therapy currently recommended by international authorities. Pediatric practitioners and general dental practitioners should be aware of olfactory and gustatory disorders in both pediatric and adult populations, including their biologic mechanisms, treatment options, and recovery rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine the effect of match schedule on self-reported wellness and sleep in rugby union referees during the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Methods: Following an observational design, 18 international-level male referees participating in the 2019 Rugby World Cup completed a daily questionnaire to quantify wellness status (sleep quality, mood, stress, fatigue, muscle soreness, and total wellness) and sleep characteristics (bedtime, wake-up time, and time in bed) from the previous night across the tournament. Linear mixed models and effect sizes (Hedges gav) assessed differences in wellness and sleep characteristics between prematch and postmatch days surrounding single-game and 2-game congested match schedules (prematch1, postmatch1, prematch2, and postmatch2 days). Results: During regular schedules, all self-reported wellness variables except stress were reduced (gav = 0.33–1.05, mean difference −0.32 to −1.21 arbitrary units [AU]) and referees went to bed later (1.08, 1:07 h:min) and spent less time in bed (−0.78, 00:55 h:min) postmatch compared with prematch days. During congested schedules, only wellness variables differed across days, with total wellness reduced on postmatch1 (−0.88, −3.56 AU) and postmatch2 (−0.67, −2.70 AU) days, as well as mood (−1.01, −0.56 AU) and fatigue (−0.90, −1.11 AU) reduced on postmatch1 days compared with prematch days. Conclusion: Referees were susceptible to acute reductions in wellness on days following matches regardless of schedule. However, only single-game regular match schedules negatively impacted the sleep characteristics of referees. Targeted strategies to maximize wellness status and sleep opportunities in referees considering the match schedule faced should be explored during future Rugby World Cup competitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]