Kingspan (Ireland)

Whether we are developing young athletes, designing injury prevention programmes, preparing high-level athletes for competition or rehabilitating an athlete back to sport, the technical skill performance of the athlete(s) needs to be considered. Usually, technical skill performance is captured by training time (minutes), training frequency (number of sessions) or movement repetitions.1 However, this approach is limited by only assessing the external workload of the technical skill. Beyond the external workload, the athlete’s physiological and psychological response to the load can also be assessed (termed internal load).1 One commonly used internal load measurement is the rating of perceived exertion (RPE)—a 0–10 or 0–100 category ratio rating scale where the lower end represents rest and the upper end maximal effort. Typically, the RPE scale is used to capture the athlete’s global perceived experience of the physical work load. From a skill perspective however, this method provides little insight into the perceived technical demands of the movement(s). Weston and colleagues recognised this limitation and asked athletes to provide an RPE for the technical demand of matches and training (RPE-T).2 3 RPE scales, however, are proposed as general intensity scales.4 This characteristic, arguably, can be considered as both an advantage (can be used for various applications) or a disadvantage if …

Kennedy, RA and Drake, D. Dissociated time course of recovery between strength and power after isoinertial resistance loading in rugby union players. J Strength Cond Res 32(3): 748-755, 2018-There is a substantial amount of research on the responses to isometric and eccentric loading. However, only a paucity of literature exists on the responses to isoinertial loading, especially in trained athletic populations using realistic loading protocols. The purpose of this study was to examine the acute neuromuscular response to a bout of isoinertial resistance loading in elite rugby players. Seventeen male (age: 19.5 ± 2.3 years) rugby union players performed a conventional maximal isoinertial resistance loading protocol. Countermovement jump (CMJ) and maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC) squat performance were measured on 3 occasions: at baseline, immediately post, and 48 hour post. The results indicated that the decrease in MVC (9.7%) is greater than or comparable with the CMJ output variables (4.2-10.3%), immediately postexercise. Although isometric strength had demonstrated a full recovery at 48 hour post, many of the key CMJ output variables were still impaired (p ≤ 0.05). Similar findings were observed in the normalized CMJ curves. Complete recovery of the ability to rapidly produced force may require more than 48 hours in many athletes. Individual responses should, therefore, be monitored to help plan acute and chronic training loads. It is recommended that future fatigue studies should incorporate temporal phase analyses to consider the power-, force-, velocity-, and displacement-time curves.