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Health and Wellbeing: Performance It might sound a little far fetched, but researchers at the University of Northumbria, in partnership with a PhD student at St Mary’s University College, have found that cherries can help improve the performance of marathon runners. The researchers asked 20 marathon runners to drink either a cherry blend juice or a placebo drink twice a day for five days before taking part in the London Marathon and for two days afterwards. The findings indicated that the group who drank the cherry juice recovered their strength more rapidly than the other group over the 48-hour period following the marathon. The researchers concluded that cherry juice appears to aid recovery following strenuous exercise by increasing total antioxidative capacity, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress and therefore helping the body recover muscle function. Another researcher from Sheffield Hallam University has found that caffeine combined with carbohydrate could be used to help athletes perform better on the field. Mayur Ranchordas, a senior lecturer and performance nutritionist conducted studies on footballers using caffeine and carbohydrates combined in a drink. Along with improvements in endurance caused by ingesting carbohydrate, the athletes’ skill level improved after taking caffeine and carbohydrate together. He said: “There is already plenty of research that shows that caffeine and carbohydrate improve endurance, but this study shows that there is also a positive effect on skill and performance. We found that the combination of carbohydrate and caffeine allowed players to sustain higher work intensity for the sprints, as well as improving shooting accuracy and dribbling during simulated soccer activity. These findings suggest that, for athletes competing in team sports where endurance and skill are important factors, ingesting a carbohydrate and caffeine drink, as opposed to just a carbohydrate drink, may significantly enhance performance.” New research that took place at the University of Central Lancashire looked at the use of calcium supplements by elite athletes and whether this has an impact on performance. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body and is needed for healthy bones and also some critical biological functions including nerve impulses, muscle contraction, cell adhesiveness, mitosis, and blood clotting. Although still in its early stages, this research has found that calcium can have an effect on metabolism, fatigue and vascular tone and therefore increase the efficiency of an athlete’s body. The use of calcium as a performance enhancing supplement still requires more research, but early findings indicate that it can play a role in performance enhancement for endurance events. Training techniques Most people know, whether they are elite athletes or not, that it is important to warm up properly before exercising or taking part in sport to help prevent muscle cramps or other injuries. A group of researchers from Aberystwyth University, the University of Brighton and the University of Exeter have been looking at new ways of warming up that can actually help improve an athlete’s performance. The team have studied warm up techniques that involve doing high-intensity exercise, known as “priming”, before the main exercise session or race. Priming increases 24 SECTION two : Health and Wellbeing
the concentration of lactate in the blood and since the production of lactate makes the blood acidic, priming exercise can be thought of as an “acid-up” (as opposed to a “warm-up”). It is generally thought that a high concentration of lactate acid makes athletic performance worse, but the researchers have repeatedly shown that the effects of priming can actually make performance better! Specifically, it seems to enhance the body’s ability to use oxygen when the main bout of exercise is performed, and this, in turn, improves performance. Priming is, of course, a legal means of enhancing performance. It will improve performance in any event that lasts from around two minutes up to about 30 minutes. In an athletics stadium, this means all events from the 800 metres to the 10,000 metres could be improved by priming exercise. Many cycling and rowing events will also be improved by priming exercise. Consequently, many of the great performances in London 2012 could be achieved by an athlete “primed” by an “acid-up” developed by scientists in UK universities. Keeping hydrated Athletes dehydrate, or lose body fluid, during competitive events, even when it’s not particularly hot. Dehydration can impair both physical and mental performance and even low levels of dehydration can lead to severe physiological consequences. A loss of two per cent bodyweight can cause an increase in perceived effort and is claimed to reduce performance by 10 to 20 per cent. Many motorsport events, such as those that take place in the United Arab Emirates, are held in extreme high temperatures where the concerns of dehydration and physiological function are normally associated with the sports person, while the effects of dehydration on support staff such as race marshals is often ignored. Dr Gareth Davison of the Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Institute at the University of Ulster in collaboration with Dr Sean Petherbridge, Chief Medical Officer of the Automobile & Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates, have received funding from the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Institute to examine the effects of dehydration on physiologically related vital signs in motorsport marshals working in a hot and humid environment within the United Arab Emirates. A secondary aim of this work will be to provide important information that will contribute towards the production of a best practice report for motorsport marshals in extremely high temperatures. This research is due to begin shortly and will be of particular interest to athletes hoping to take part in the 2016 Olympics which will be held in sunny Rio, Brazil and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. SECTION two : Health and Wellbeing 25
Page 1 and 2: Supporting a UK success story: The
Page 3 and 4: British Universities & Colleges Spo
Page 5 and 6: Research is increasingly being used
Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS Section 1 technology Secti
Page 9 and 10: Electronic POWERbreathe® K-Series
Page 11 and 12: Strengthening foundations through 3
Page 13 and 14: Since then, the Imperial team have
Page 15 and 16: Men’s 4x100 m relay team review t
Page 17 and 18: Technology: FOOTBALL FOCUSED Footba
Page 19 and 20: “This interactive approach will a
Page 21 and 22: SECTION ONE : TECHNOLOGY 21
Page 23: A number of new technologies will b
Page 27 and 28: Dr James Betts sampling blood for a
Page 29 and 30: A healthy legacy Recognising the im
Page 31 and 32: mind anticipates the end of a bout
Page 33 and 34: Health and Wellbeing Monitoring air
Page 35 and 36: Sharon Gayter SECTION two : Health
Page 37 and 38: difference. It is the same disabili
Page 39 and 40: Tom Waller, a former Engineering an
Page 41 and 42: Role of drawing in the Olympic Game
Page 43 and 44: Design for disabled athletes Studen
Page 45 and 46: SECTION THREE : DESIGN 45
Page 47 and 48: The first project, ‘Sport for Lif
Page 49 and 50: of the game away from the more expe
Page 51 and 52: Tennis Tennis is another sport whic
Page 53 and 54: London 1948 established Olympism’
Page 55 and 56: Modern Pentathlon celebrates its ce
Page 57 and 58: etween the two countries in the run
Page 59 and 60: PhD student Helen Hoyle Trial plot
Page 61 and 62: World Student Games in Sheffield SE
Page 63 and 64: Lifelong health Physical inactivity

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