EFFECTS OF FATIGUE ON INDIVIDUAL’S PERFORMANCE AND MUSCLE COMPENSATION
INTRODUCTION
Fatigue is the key driver in exposing weaknesses and deficiencies in athletes’ performance. Traditional methods have been inadequate in location weakness points and ensuing compensation when athletes enter fatigue stages. To mitigate further injuries, coaches have been working with players strengthening their muscles in symmetric ways, whether left to right, or posterior and anterior.
To understand this better, we will look at the athlete who conducted six extensive drills as a part of a daily workout. In this example, we will discuss how fatigue affects this athlete and his muscle response during the compensation.
FATIGUE ANALYSIS
The athlete ran through set of drills that consisted of running, farmer’s walk, obstacle course (running, jumping, climbing), farmer’s walk, plate pushing, and monkey bar ramps. Throughout the whole session, the athlete was moving between different parts of the course, actively running. Fatigue was increasing around 10th minute and during the obstacle course.
Figure 1 – Fatigue state (in red)
One of the main reasons for the fatigue state have been first 10 minutes of high tempo cardio. Upon their completion, the athlete switched to a lower intensity obstacle course.
Figure 2 – High external load followed by lower external load
As it can be seen in Figure 1, the athlete gets tired after first 10 minutes, which correlates to the completion of the high intensity cardio (see Figure 2). The athlete then gets somewhat recovered during the lower intensity stage, which is the second set of 11 minutes.
In case of Strive, fatigue is defined by the ratio of external and internal load that is unique to each athlete.
FATIGUE OUTCOMES
In this case, looking at the fatigue state (after the red line below) in the Figure 3, this athlete started using quads as his dominant muscles to move. This resulted in lower activation of posterior chain (hamstrings and glutes). The increased utilization of quads of around 27%, and decreased utilization of hamstrings and glutes of about 34%, drove the gap to ~50% increasing the likelihood of knee hyperextension due to the lower activation of the posterior chain. A typical recommendation is that the hamstring should be at least 60% of quads output, which was not the case here. While the athlete did not get injured, the ongoing performance with a similar signature could result in injuries.
Figure 3 – Muscle compensation during fatigue
Looking at the individual muscles, in this case right quad decreased in output by about 22% forcing the left quad to handle most of the load. Coincidentally, the left hamstring and glute decreased by about 20% in the total exertion from the pre-fatigue state.
Figure 4 – Quadriceps Output
Figure 5 – Hamstrings Output
Figure 6 – Glutes Output
CONCLUSION
Lower limb and the overall performance are very dependent on proper distribution of muscle exertion during any movements. This requires the full balance between quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Often, weight room, and especially static machines have allowed athletes to compensate, and furthermore, present their best version. But things change once the players get on the field, they perform according to their habits, and furthermore, they become their true selves when tired. That is why in this case, we saw the compensation between both, posterior and anterior chain, and left and right (in case of quads).
While fortunately, the injury didn’t occur, monitoring this particular athlete on ongoing basis would provide for a better understanding of performance habits, and make sure that the asymmetry does not drift further, but that the athlete gains control over the muscle exertion distribution, even in fatigue states.
WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the STRIVE Platform, review the literature below illustrating various use cases and research.
NCAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM TRACKS SPRINTS USING STRIVE TECH
PURPOSE
Understanding game workloads allow coaches better insight into the demands of Women’s Basketball at the NCAA D1 Level. Coaches look to prescribe training loads in the gym and on the court through progressions that appropriately prepare athletes to perform during matches. Most team sport that require demands of intermittent exercise include the ability to perform through high-intensity bouts of high-speed running. The purpose of this case study was to capture, analyze and visually prepare data to better understand sprinting demands of Division 1 Collegiate Women’s Basketball.
BACKGROUND
Strive is a performance tracking wearable technology system seamlessly integrated into compression shorts for both female and male athletes utilize in all training settings. The garments are comfortable, can be embedded in whatever brand the team desires, and…
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN FATIGUE AND GAME PERFORMANCE
DESCRIPTION
Tracking metrics like speed, distance and accelerations can reveal patterns in practices and games that allow coaching staff to make adjustments. In addition to those metrics, one team wanted to understand the amount of effort players exerted throughout a week leading up to a game. The team employed STRIVE to track both the external metrics as well as the muscle EMG activity.
RESULTS
STRIVE worked with the team to analyze the results and found an interesting early correlation: The overall fatigue of the team, which compared how hard the muscles worked to produce the accelerations, directly correlated with the how well the team performed in the game. Essentially, the team performed below their potential when the players approached fatigue the week leading up to a game.
MONITORING INTENSITY OF GAME VS. PRACTICE
DESCRIPTION
How can coaches structure their weekly practices to better prepare for a game? One team wanted to replicate drills that produced similar game-time intensity that would allow them to structure their practices to optimize performance. With the help of STRIVE, they collected millions of data points across jumps, distance and accelerations to see what insights they could capture before games.
RESULTS
By analyzing the practices and non-conference games at the start of the season, the team identified how the opponent’s style of play impacted their player’s metrics. Using this information, the team made adjustments to their weekly practice schedule in an effort to get the same results in practice as on game day.
CHANGES IN PLAYER LOAD? SYSTEMS INTERROGATION
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use and utility of Sense3, a sensor system embedded in compression shorts that measure kinematic changes, muscle activation and physiology in elite athletes.
THE PROBLEM
Elite sports teams have been monitoring athlete loads through wearable technology for close to 10 years, yet most leagues and teams have yet to see a quantifiable reduction in athlete injury or a significant change in performance-based outputs. In many cases, the technologies provide a singular load metric “score” indicating a difference from game to game- or practice sessions. Practitioners are left to make “inferences” on why the score changed, without forming a direct rationale as to which biological system…
RETURN-TO-PLAY – INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL LOAD
DESCRIPTION
As the player started return-to-play protocol, the team asked STRIVE to re-assess his efficiency. The goal was to replicate the pre-injury practice session and identify any significant changes that could impact his recovery.
RESULTS
Before the injury, the player was found very efficient likely due to his conditioning to recovery balance. When STRIVE re-assessed the player post-injury, it showed that the internal load drastically increased even though the external load stayed consistent causing his efficiency to decrease nearly 40%.
USING STRIVE TO ASSESS RETURN TO PLAY FOR NFL PLAYERS
DESCRIPTION
There are an average of 176 hamstring injuries each season in the NFL. Once a player sustains an injury, they are more prone to re injuring the same muscle. Players with hamstring injuries miss an average of 13 days depending on the severity. While practicing return-to-play protocol for hamstring injuries, one NFL team used STRIVE. Taking into account body composition, position, left vs. right dominance and previous injuries, STRIVE discovered how certain exercises affect specific muscle groups differently on individual players.
RESULTS
With this finding, the team worked collaboratively with strength coaches, athletic…
INTRODUCTION
Currently, athletic organizations relate “Player Load” as a metric of output. IMU tech measures the output of an athlete’s session and then a load is provided for use in comparison with the athlete’s body of data to detect longitudinal trends and outliers. This number is then used as insight into how hard a session was for an athlete in relation to all other sessions, and sometimes even used as an injury risk indicator. In reality, the term Player Load is much broader than a simple movement score provided by an accelerometer. The amount of stress that an athlete’s body is under, influences the difficulty of a session. A movement score is not without value, and it plays an important role in the idea of a player’s load. However, there is additional context that is needed to fill out the picture that is true Player Load.
DESCRIPTION
Electromyography (EMG) is a diagnostic technique that evaluates and measures the electrical activity of skeletal muscles. The resultant amplitude of the muscles can help provide an approximation of internal load or how much work the muscles have done during an exercise period. With the noticeable uptick in the usage of wearable technology that measures external load, most strength and conditioning practitioners, athletic trainers, and other athletic organizational professionals are aware of the usefulness of an external load measurement. While the external load metric is useful in approximating the output of an athlete within an exercise session there is no accounting for the workload felt internally, by the muscles. One popular purpose of measuring external load is to reduce general fatigue and chronic stress. This is a reasonable…
VISUALIZING PERIODIZATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON AN IMBALANCE OF MUSCLE INPUT TO OUTPUT RATIO
INTRODUCTION
Periodization in sport is important. Seasons can be long and grueling, and an organization always needs to be aware of the fatigue status of its athletes. With the influx of wearable tech, the increasingly common way to monitor load status in athletes is to obtain an external load metric (traditional player load) and monitor it over the course of a season. This has worked well for visualizing periodization of athlete training. With an external workload quantified, teams now have a better idea of what a “normal” external workload is at an individual athlete level or a more general team level. This is a good start but is missing a key piece of information. When measuring external load…
EFFECTS OF FATIGUE ON INDIVIDUAL’S PERFORMANCE AND MUSCLE COMPENSATION
INTRODUCTION
Fatigue is the key driver in exposing weaknesses and deficiencies in athletes’ performance. Traditional methods have been inadequate in location weakness points and ensuing compensation when athletes enter fatigue stages. To mitigate further injuries, coaches have been working with players strengthening their muscles in symmetric ways, whether left to right, or posterior and anterior. To understand this better, we will look at the athlete who conducted six extensive drills as a part of a daily workout. In this example, we will discuss how fatigue affects this athlete and his muscle response during the compensation.
STRIVE BLOG
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | STRIVE, the only platform proven to optimize muscle performance for elite athletes and teams, today announced a strategic partnership with Fairly Group, the premier insurance broker and risk management company with hundreds of clients across all major professional sports leagues. Through the partnership, STRIVE is now available to players and teams as a benefit. Numerous players are already using STRIVE to help their return to play from injuries suffered during games.
AUGUST 10, 2021 | STRIVE CEO and Cofounder Nikola Mrvaljevic sat down with the Driving Force Podcast to discuss STRIVE’s place in human performance. From playing professional basketball in Montenegro, to leading his team at STRIVE, Mrvaljevic discusses it all.
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