Impact of potential physiological changes due to COVID-19 home confinement on athlete health protection in elite sports: a call for awareness in sports programming
Fabio Sarto, Franco M. Impellizzeri, Jörg Spörri, Simone Porcelli, Jesùs Olmo, Bernardo Requena, Luís Suárez-Arrones, Amelia Arundale, Johann Bilsborough, Martin Buchheit, Jo Clubb, Aaron J. Coutts, Dustin Nabhan, Lorena Torres-Ronda, Alberto Mendez-Villanueva, Iñigo Mujika, Nicola A. Maffiuletti, Martino V. Franchi
Abstract
During COVID-19 home confinement, athletes are likely exposed to some level of detraining (i.e. the partial or complete loss of training-induced morphological and physiological adaptations), as a consequence of insufficient and/or inappropriate training stimuli. Such changes may result in impaired performance and increased injury risk if, upon restart, an appropriate sport-specific reconditioning cannot be granted. With this editorial, we aim to recommend extreme caution in sports programming after the COVID-19 emergency