Unificar les ciències de l’esport

L’esport no és només un fenomen social del nostre món, sinó que també és un camp privilegiat per a l’estudi del comportament humà i social. Durant les últimes dècades, s’ha produït un enorme creixement i especialització de les ciències de l’esport i el lema del 18è Congrés de l’European College of Sport Sciences (ECSS) “Unificar les ciències de l’esport” representa desafiar aquest procés de fragmentació. El lema comporta un canvi de l’especialització a la integració, d’una concepció dels sistemes vius basada en la teoria de la informació i l’enginyeria a una de base biològica, de la investigació multidisciplinària a la transdisciplinària. Però sorgeix una pregunta: ¿és possible integrar les àrees fragmentades i facilitar la transferència de principis explicatius teòrics, tècniques i perspectives metodològiques entre disciplines? En el marc de les contribucions fetes en el congrés, aquest article té com a objectiu introduir enfocaments científics que ja estan estesos en els àmbits de la física, la química, la biologia (incloent-hi les òmiques) i les ciències socials, i que centrats en les interaccions dinàmiques complexes dels components sistèmics (proteïnes, cèl· lules, organismes, grups, societats), revelen principis explicatius generals que contribueixen a la unificació del coneixement. Pretenem encoratjar les persones interessades en les ciències de l’esport a concebre noves formes d’investigació i a complementar, sense substituir-los, els enfocaments dominants, amb l’esperança que anar de les parts al tot i del tot a les parts ajudarà els científics a reconèixer els camins més adients

Healthy Teleworking: Towards Personalized Exercise Recommendations

Home-based teleworking, associated with sedentary behavior, may impair self-reported adult health status. Current exercise recommendations, based on universal recipes, may be insufficient or even misleading to promote healthy teleworking. From the Network Physiology of Exercise perspective, health is redefined as an adaptive emergent state, product of dynamic interactions among multiple levels (from genetic to social) that cannot be reduced to a few dimensions. Under such a perspective, fitness development is focused on enhancing the individual functional diversity potential, which is better achieved through varied and personalized exercise proposals. This paper discusses some myths related to ideal or unique recommendations, like the ideal exercise or posture, and the contribution of recent computer technologies and applications for prescribing exercise and assessing fitness. Highlighting the need for creating personalized working environments and strengthening the active contribution of users in the process, new recommendations related to teleworking posture, home exercise counselling, exercise monitoring and to the roles of healthcare and exercise professionals are proposed. Instead of exercise prescribers, professionals act as co-designers that help users to learn, co-adapt and adequately contextualize exercise in order to promote their somatic awareness, job satisfaction, productivity, work–life balance, wellbeing and health.This work was supported by the National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia (INEFC), Generalitat de Catalunya. M.C.A. is supported by the project “Towards an embodied and trans-disciplinary education” granted by the Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional of the Spanish government (FPU19/05693)

Local Pain Dynamics during Constant Exhaustive Exercise

The purpose of this study was to delineate the topological dynamics of pain and discomfort during constant exercise performed until volitional exhaustion. Eleven physical education students were tested while cycling and running at a “hard” intensity level (e.g., corresponding to Borg’s RPE (6–20) = 15). During the tests, participants reported their discomfort and pain on a body map every 15s. “Time on task” for each participant was divided into five equal non-overlapping temporal windows within which their ratings were considered for analysis. The analyses revealed that the number of body locations with perceived pain and discomfort increased throughout the five temporal windows until reaching the mean (± SE) values of 4.2 ± 0.7 and 4.1 ± 0.6 in cycling and running, respectively. The dominant locations included the quadriceps and hamstrings during cycling and quadriceps and chest during running. In conclusion, pain seemed to spread throughout the body during constant cycling and running performed up to volitional exhaustion with differences between cycling and running in the upper body but not in the lower body dynamics

Prescribing or co-designing exercise in healthy adults? Effects on mental health and interoceptive awareness

Universal exercise recommendations for adults neglect individual preferences, changing constraints, and their potential impact on associated health benefits. A recent proposal suggests replacing the standardized World Health Organisation (WHO) exercise recommendations for healthy adults by co designed interventions where individuals participate actively in the decisions about the selected physical activities and the effort regulation. This study contrasts the effects on mental health and interoceptive awareness of a co designed and co-adapted exercise intervention with an exercise program based on the WHO recommendations for healthy adults. Twenty healthy adults (10 men and 10 women, 40-55 y.o.) participated voluntarily in the research. They were randomly assigned to a co-designed exercise intervention (CoD group) and a prescribed exercise program (WHO group). Supervised online by specialized personal trainers, both programs lasted 9 weeks and were equivalent in volume and intensity. The effects of the exercise intervention were tested through personal interviews, questionnaires (DASS 21 and MAIA) and a cardiorespiratory exercise test. Intragroup differences (pre post) were assessed using the Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon test and intergroup differences through Student's t-tests. Effect sizes were calculated through Cohen's d. Interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. Eleven participants completed the intervention (CoD = 8, WHO = 5). Both groups improved, but non significantly, their cardiorespiratory testing results, and no differences were found between them post-intervention. Mental health was only enhanced in the CoD group (p < 0.001), and interoceptive awareness improved in seven of the eight scales in the CoD group (p < 0.001) and only in 3 scales in the WHO group (p < 0.01). In conclusion, the co-designed intervention was more effective for developing mental health, interoceptive awareness, autonomy, and exercise self-regulation than the WHO-based exercise program

Entrenament integrat. Principis dinàmics i aplicacions

L’interès per l’entrenament integrat és creixent i per augmentar la seva eficàcia resulta clau conèixer com es produeix el procés d’integració en els sistemes vius. Generalment, se sol assumir que el tipus d’integració que es dóna en l’organisme i entre els components de l’entrenament és sumatòria i lineal; és a dir, està caracteritzada per relacions proporcionals, fixes i invariables en el temps, com les que es donen en qualsevol artefacte tècnic. Aquest model d’integració, basat en la cibernètica clàssica, contrasta amb el model d’integració dinàmica i no lineal, assentat en la neurociència, la teoria de sistemes dinàmics no lineals i la dinàmica ecològica. Alguns principis de la integració dinàmica i no lineal com l’autoorganització, el seu caràcter no proporcional i no conscient i la seva integració contextual en diferents escales acostumen a ignorar-se sistemàticament en les metodologies d’entrenament més habituals. L’objectiu d’aquest treball és presentar els principis dinàmics de l’entrenament integrat per promoure l’emergència de metodologies més eficaces i eficients i alhora més respectuoses amb els esportistes i els equips

Entrenamiento integrado. Principios dinámicos y aplicaciones

El interés por el entrenamiento integrado es creciente y para aumentar su eficacia resulta clave conocer cómo se produce el proceso de integración en los sistemas vivos. Por lo general, se suele asumir que el tipo de integración que se da en el organismo y entre los componentes del entrenamiento es sumatoria y lineal; es decir, está caracterizada por relaciones proporcionales, fijas e invariables en el tiempo, como las que se dan en cualquier artilugio técnico. Este modelo de integración, basado en la cibernética clásica, contrasta con el modelo de integración dinámica y no lineal, asentado en la neurociencia, la teoría de sistemas dinámicos no lineales, y la dinámica ecológica. Algunos principios de la integración dinámica y no lineal como la autoorganización, su carácter no proporcional y no consciente y su integración contextual en diferentes escalas acostumbran a ignorarse sistemáticamente en las metodologías de entrenamiento más habituales. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar los principios dinámicos del entrenamiento integrado para promover la emergencia de metodologías más eficaces y eficientes a la vez que más respetuosas con los deportistas y los equipos

Metastable Coordination Dynamics of Collaborative Creativity in Educational Settings

Educational systems consider fostering creativity and cooperation as two essential aims to nurture future sustainable citizens. The cooperative learning approach proposes different pedagogical strategies for developing creativity in students. In this paper, we conceptualize collaborative creativity under the framework of coordination dynamics and, specifically, we base it on the formation of spontaneous multiscale synergies emerging in complex living systems when interacting with cooperative/competitive environments. This conception of educational agents (students, teachers, institutions) changes the understanding of the teaching/learning process and the traditional roles assigned to each agent. Under such an understanding, the design and co-design of challenging and meaningful learning environments is a key aspect to promote the spontaneous emergence of multiscale functional synergies and teams (of students, students and teachers, teachers, institutions, etc.). According to coordination dynamics, cooperative and competitive processes (within and between systems and their environments) are seen not as opposites but as complementary pairs, needed to develop collaborative creativity and increase the functional diversity potential of teams. Adequate manipulation of environmental and personal constraints, nested in different level and time scales, and the knowledge of their critical (tipping) points are key aspects for an adequate design of learning environments to develop synergistic creativity.This work was supported by the National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia (INEFC), Generalitat de Catalunya. M.A. is supported by the project “Towards an embodied and transdisciplinary education” granted by the Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional of the Spanish government (FPU19/05693). J.A.S.K. is supported by NIMH Grant MH MH080838, the Davimos Family Endowment for Excellence in Science, and the Florida Atlantic University Foundation

Cardiorespiratory coordination during exercise in adults with Down syndrome

Introduction: Down syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal disorder affecting simultaneously cardiovascular and respiratory systems. There is no research studying the coupling between these systems during cardiorespiratory exercise testing in a population with DS. Cardiorespiratory coordination (CRC), evaluated through principal component analysis (PCA), measures the covariation of cardiorespiratory variables during exercise. Objective: to investigate and compare CRC in adults with and without DS during maximal cardiorespiratory exercise testing. Methods: fifteen adults with DS and 15 adults without disabilities performed a maximal cardiorespiratory exercise test on a treadmill. First, the slope, and afterward the velocity was increased regularly until participants reached exhaustion. The time series of six selected cardiorespiratory variables [ventilation per minute, an expired fraction of O2, the expired fraction of CO2, heart rate, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP)] were extracted for the analysis. The number of principal components (PCs), the first PC eigenvalues (PC1), and the information entropy were computed for each group (non-DS and DS) and compared using a t-test or a Mann-Whitney U test. Results: two PCs in the non-DS group and three PCs in the DS group captured the variance of the studied cardiorespiratory variables. The formation of an additional PC in the DS group was the result of the shift of SBP and DBP fromthe PC1 cluster of variables. Eigenvalues of PC1 were higher in the non-DS (U = 30; p = 0.02; d = 1.47) than in the DS group, and the entropy measure was higher in the DS compared with the non-DS group (U = 37.5; p = 0.008; d = 0.70). Conclusion: adults with Down syndrome showed higher CRC dimensionality and a higher entropy measure than participants without disabilities. Both findings point toward a lower efficiency of the cardiorespiratory function during exercise in participants with DS. CRC appears as an alternative measure to investigate the cardiorespiratory function and its response to exercise in the DS population