Piil Jacob Feder, Kingma Boris, Morris Nathan B, Christiansen Lasse, Ioannou Leonidas G, Flouris Andreas D, Nybo Lars
Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Section for Integrative Physiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Temperature (Austin). 2021 Aug 20;8(3):262-283. doi: 10.1080/23328940.2021.1957367. eCollection 2021.
Heat strain impairs performance across a broad spectrum of sport disciplines. The impeding effects of hyperthermia and dehydration are often ascribed to compromised cardiovascular and muscular functioning, but expert performance also depends on appropriately tuned sensory, motor and cognitive processes. Considering that hyperthermia has implications for central nervous system (CNS) function and fatigue, it is highly relevant to analyze how heat stress forecasted for the upcoming Olympics may influence athletes. This paper proposes and demonstrates the use of a framework combining expected weather conditions with a heat strain and motor-cognitive model to analyze the impact of heat and associated factors on discipline- and scenario-specific performances during the Tokyo 2021 games. We pinpoint that hyperthermia-induced central fatigue may affect prolonged performances and analyze how hyperthermia may impair complex motor-cognitive performance, especially when accompanied by either moderate dehydration or exposure to severe solar radiation. Interestingly, several short explosive performances may benefit from faster cross-bridge contraction velocities at higher muscle temperatures in sport disciplines with little or no negative heat-effect on CNS fatigue or motor-cognitive performance. In the analyses of scenarios and Olympic sport disciplines, we consider thermal impacts on "motor-cognitive factors" such as decision-making, maximal and fine motor-activation as well as the influence on central fatigue and pacing. From this platform, we also provide perspectives on how athletes and coaches can identify risks for their event and potentially mitigate negative motor-cognitive effects for and optimize performance in the environmental settings projected.
热应激会损害各种体育项目的表现。高温和脱水的阻碍作用通常归因于心血管和肌肉功能受损，但专家级表现还取决于适当调整的感官、运动和认知过程。鉴于高温对中枢神经系统（CNS）功能和疲劳有影响，分析即将到来的奥运会预计的热应激如何影响运动员具有高度相关性。本文提出并展示了一个将预期天气状况与热应激和运动认知模型相结合的框架，以分析热及相关因素对2021年东京奥运会期间特定项目和场景表现的影响。我们指出，高温引起的中枢疲劳可能会影响长时间的表现，并分析高温如何损害复杂的运动认知表现，特别是在伴有中度脱水或暴露于强烈太阳辐射的情况下。有趣的是，在对中枢神经系统疲劳或运动认知表现几乎没有或没有负面热效应的体育项目中，一些短时间的爆发力表现可能会受益于较高肌肉温度下更快的横桥收缩速度。在对场景和奥运会体育项目的分析中，我们考虑了热对“运动认知因素”的影响，如决策、最大和精细运动激活，以及对中枢疲劳和节奏的影响。基于这个平台，我们还提供了关于运动员和教练如何识别其项目风险，并可能减轻负面运动认知影响以及在预计的环境设置中优化表现的观点。
