Biomarkers in Sports and Exercise: Tracking Health, Performance, and Recovery in Athletes

Abstract

Lee, EC, Fragala, MS, Kavouras, SA, Queen, RM, Pryor, JL, and Casa, DJ. Biomarkers in sports and exercise: tracking health, performance, and recovery in athletes. J Strength Cond Res 31(10): 2920–2937, 2017—Biomarker discovery and validation is a critical aim of the medical and scientific community. Research into exercise and diet-related biomarkers aims to improve health, performance, and recovery in military personnel, athletes, and lay persons. Exercise physiology research has identified individual biomarkers for assessing health, performance, and recovery during exercise training. However, there are few recommendations for biomarker panels for tracking changes in individuals participating in physical activity and exercise training programs. Our approach was to review the current literature and recommend a collection of validated biomarkers in key categories of health, performance, and recovery that could be used for this purpose. We determined that a comprehensive performance set of biomarkers should include key markers of (a) nutrition and metabolic health, (b) hydration status, (c) muscle status, (d) endurance performance, (e) injury status and risk, and (f) inflammation. Our review will help coaches, clinical sport professionals, researchers, and athletes better understand how to comprehensively monitor physiologic changes, as they design training cycles that elicit maximal improvements in performance while minimizing overtraining and injury risk.

Serum GAA as a Possible Biomarker of Exhaustive Exercise?

“…However, GAA concentrations sampled at 24-h post-exercise period restored to the baseline values, suggesting a recovered GAA homeostasis for the next exhaustive exercise session set at a following day (Al Fazazi et al, 2019). This delicate changes in circulating GAA could be perhaps more convenient for a time-sensitive evaluation of post-exhaustive exercise recovery, as compared to traditional biomarkers employed for recovery surveillance (Lee et al, 2017).…”

“…From a substantial increase in an expenditure of cellular energy to an up-regulation of proteins involved in all aspects of energy turnover (Smiles et al, 2016), exhaustive exercise is consistently accompanied by considerable changes in various indicators of energy metabolism in the circulation and energy-demanding tissues, such as the brain, heart, or skeletal muscle (Kastellorizios and Burgess, 2015). Specifically, a plethora of blood-based biomarkers have emerged in recent years as effective screening tools used to monitor exhaustive exercise-induced changes in bioenergetics (Lee et al, 2017). At the same time, it remains puzzling why the indices of creatine metabolism in the blood are rarely used in routine screening during exercise, having in mind a fact that creatine utilization plays a major role during activities in which short bursts of intense energy are required (Wallimann et al, 2011).…”

The ethanol extract from the rhodophyta Gloiopeltis furcata and its active ingredient docosahexaenoic acid improve exercise performance in mice

“…These changes reflect liver gluconeogenesis, in which lactate is converted into glucose (Exton & Park, 1967). Blood urea is produced in the liver as the end product of protein and amino acid metabolism, and the urea level reflects the results of protein degradation, dehydration, stress, and fatigue (Lee et al, 2017). After physical exercise, blood urea levels normally increase.…”

Sports Recovery Knowledge Level Test Validity and Reliability Study

“…Mevcut literatürde toparlanma ile ilgili araştırmalar daha çok toparlanmanın fizyolojik, psikolojik ve biyokimyasal yönleri üzerine yapılmıştır. 16,20,[37][38][39][40][41][42] Aynı zamanda çeşitli toparlanma yöntemlerinin sporcu performans parametreleri üzerindeki etkilerine bakılmıştır. [43][44][45][46] Ancak sporcunun ya da antrenörün sporda toparlanma hakkında bilgi, tutum ya da görüşlerine dair bir çalışmaya ulaşılamamıştır.…”