Multidimensional Monitoring of Recovery States, Biomarkers, Workload, and Performance in Elite Basketball: An Exploratory Longitudinal Field Study
Abstract
Abstract Purpose Elite team-sport programs increasingly combine athlete-reported wellness ratings with biochemical markers, yet the applied interpretation of these multimodal data remains uncertain. This exploratory longitudinal field study examined whether recovery-related athlete-reported states were associated with salivary markers, acute competition exposure, and performance-readiness profiles in elite basketball players. Methods The dataset comprised 309 observations from 13 elite basketball players monitored over 15 weeks. Athlete-reported variables included calmness, stress, anger, sleep quality, tiredness, muscle soreness, energy, and sleep duration. Salivary biomarkers included pH, uric acid, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine kinase (CK), ketones, and immunoglobulin A (IgA). Minutes played were used as an indicator of acute competition exposure. Analyses included correlations and biomarker stratification, exploratory risk-enrichment analyses for biomarker abnormalities, fast-versus-slow subjective recovery comparisons, mixed-effects models of post-game-to-recovery change scores, and performance-readiness group comparisons. Results Severe muscle soreness and low energy were the clearest subjective flags of biomarker abnormality. The strongest enrichment was observed for low IgA among severe-soreness observations, with a rate of 75.0% compared with 14.9% among trait-negative observations. Salivary pH differentiated fast and slow recovery from tiredness (p =…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Biportal endoscopic versus microscopic lumbar decompressive laminectomy in patients with spinal stenosis: A randomized controlled trial
- A whey protein-based multi-ingredient nutritional supplement stimulates gains in lean body mass and strength in healthy older men: A randomized controlled trial
- Supplement-based nutritional strategies to tackle frailty: A multifactorial, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial
- A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, proof-of-concept trial of creatine monohydrate as adjunctive treatment for bipolar depression
- Creatine supplementation (3 g/day) and bone health in older women: a 2-year, randomized, placebo-controlled trial
- A Multi-Ingredient Nutritional Supplement in Combination With Resistance Exercise and High-Intensity Interval Training Improves Cognitive Function and Increases N-3 Index in Healthy Older Men: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.