Applied Sciences

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Dear Colleagues,

The cooperation between engineering and sport in research activities has grown and is a firm reality. This connection has allowed for studies to be conducted and innovative products to be developed that actively improve the performance of professional and amateur athletes. Helping to prevent injuries, which can inhibit sports practice during leisure or competition, is a challenge faced by athletes and coaches. Both coaches and athletes can benefit from the knowledge that studies in biomechanics can impart to them. Biomechanics can help improve athletes' performance, helping to define training methodologies to optimise athletes' performance and reduce or even prevent injuries.

This Special Issue aims to present the latest advances in biomechanics and sports engineering concerning the understanding of the mechanisms underlying athletes' responses during training, performance improvement, and occurrence of injuries, as well as providing information on the design of equipment and devices used by athletes and coaches. Original research studies and systematic reviews are welcome to this Special Issue.

Dr. Ana Martins Amaro
Dr. Luís Roseiro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sport biomechanics
exercise performance
injury evaluation and rehabilitation
injury prevention
athletic training

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characteristics of Changes in Contractile Properties of Muscle after Anaerobic Exercise

by Justyna Dydek, Katarzyna Bliźniak, Hugo Sarmento, Andreas Ihle, Élvio Rúbio Gouveia, Janusz Iskra and Krzysztof Przednowek

Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(7), 3078; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14073078 - 06 Apr 2024

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Abstract

Tensiomyography (TMG) has been described as an effective method for identifying differences in muscle response to athletic training stimuli. However, there is a lack of studies that evaluated changes in muscle contractile properties in response to anaerobic effort and related these changes to Wingate test parameters in more than one lower limb superficial muscle. The main contribution of this work is to evaluate changes in the contractile properties of muscles in response to anaerobic exercise. In a group of 20 physically active men, the body composition analysis was performed using a Tanita DC-360 device. The anaerobic effort was assessed by a Wingate test (30 s), and the contractile properties of muscles were measured using a TMG S2 device. The TMG parameters were measured in selected superficial muscles of the dominant lower limb. The study also calculated indices of the differences (d) and the size of the effect (r). An anaerobic effort in the form of the Wingate test resulted in greater stiffness (Dm) in the vastus lateralis muscle (p = 0.0365; r = 0.47) and a delayed response to stimulus (Td) in the vastus lateralis (p = 0.0239; r = 0.51) and vastus medialis (p = 0.0031; r = 0.66) muscles. The half relaxation time (Tr) (p = 0.0478; r = 0.44) and sustained contraction time (Ts) (p = 0.0276; r = 0.49) in the rectus femoris muscle were also increased. In contrast, a prolonged stimulus-response time (Td) with a decrease in sustained contraction time (Ts) was observed in the gastrocnemius lateralis (Td: p = 0.0054; r = 0.64 and Ts: p = 0.0012; r = 0.74) and gastrocnemius medialis (Td: p = 0.0229; r = 0.52 and Ts: p = 0.0054; r = 0.64) muscles. A significant decrease in contraction time (Tc) (p = 0.0051; r = 0.63) occurred only in the soleus muscle. In addition, significant correlations were shown between selected changes in contractile properties of muscle and parameters of the Wingate anaerobic test. Anaerobic exercise has a significant effect on changes in skeletal muscle contractility parameters. TMG is an effective method for identifying differences in muscle response to sports training stimuli. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomechanics and Sport Engineering: Latest Advances and Prospects)

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Review

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18 pages, 1164 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Systematic Review of Osteotomies to Correct Hallux Valgus in the First Metatarsal

by M. Santos, L. Roseiro, E. Cortesão Seiça and A. M. Amaro

Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(7), 3043; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14073043 - 04 Apr 2024

Viewed by 533

Abstract

Hallux valgus is one of the most common deformities of the forefoot. When addressing hallux valgus, surgical management plays a central role, with the majority of techniques consisting of cutting (osteotomy) and reshaping the overall anatomy of the metatarsal and phalanx. Understanding and analyzing the results of many osteotomies to treat hallux valgus is essential. This systematic review aims to summarize a structure of the different practices used through osteotomies to correct hallux valgus in the metatarsal, the results obtained, and the methodologies used to provide a follow-up. This systematic search was carried out using three databases: the National Library of Medicine, Science Direct, and Sage Journals. This research mainly focused on analyzing the outcomes and post-operative results of the various osteotomies of the first metatarsal manuscripts that addressed more than just the procedure analysis or its results, which were excluded, as in the case of combined pathologies. Fifteen manuscripts were included for full-text analysis based on comparative/explanatory studies of surgical procedures for hallux valgus metatarsal osteotomies and their clinical outcomes. The clinical results were analyzed in two aspects: the dimensional analysis of the metatarsal before and after the surgical procedure and the technologies used to obtain the follow-up. This review will guide future research into the more comprehensive use of the metatarsal osteotomy process and where engineering can and should intervene and make the procedures more precise and straightforward. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomechanics and Sport Engineering: Latest Advances and Prospects)

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