**Biomechanical Spectrum of Human Sport Performance**

Special Issue Editors

**Redha Taiar Mario Bernardo-Filho**

MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade • Manchester • Tokyo • Cluj • Tianjin

*Special Issue Editors* Redha Taiar Universite de Reims ´ Champagne Ardenne France

Mario Bernardo-Filho Institute of Biology Roberto Alcantara Gomes, Rio de Janeiro State University Brazil

*Editorial Office* MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland

This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal *Applied Sciences* (ISSN 2076-3417) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special issues/Sport Biomechanical Spectrum).

For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below:

LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. *Journal Name* **Year**, *Article Number*, Page Range.

**ISBN 978-3-03936-396-4 (Hbk) ISBN 978-3-03936-397-1 (PDF)**

c 2020 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications.

The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.

### **Contents**

#### **Ekin Basalp, Patrick Bachmann, Nicolas Gerig, Georg Rauter and Peter Wolf**

Configurable 3D Rowing Model Renders Realistic Forces on a Simulator for Indoor Training Reprinted from: *Appl. Sci.* **2020**, *10*, 734, doi:10.3390/app10030734 .................. **121**

**Kennedy Freitas Pereira Alves, Ana Paula de Lima Ferreira, Luana Caroline de Oliveira Parente, Fran¸cois Talles Medeiros Rodrigues, Thais Vitorino Marques, Gabriel Barreto Antonino, Luiz Carlos de Melo, D´ebora Wanderley Villela, Marcelo Renato Guerino, Wagner Souza Leite, Shirley Lima Campos, Larissa Coutinho de Lucena, Redha Taiar and Maria das Gra¸cas Rodrigues de Ara ´ujo**

Immediate Effect of Whole-Body Vibration on Skin Temperature and Lower-Limb Blood Flow in Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: Pilot Study

Reprinted from: *Appl. Sci.* **2020**, *10*, 690, doi:10.3390/app10020690 .................. **145**

#### **Kellen T. Krajewski, Carla McCabe, Aaron M. Sinnott, Gavin L. Moir, Hugh S. Lamont, Susan Brown and Chris Connaboy**

Inter-Segmental Coordination during a Unilateral 180◦ Jump in Elite Rugby Players: Implications for Prospective Identification of Injuries Reprinted from: *Appl. Sci.* **2020**, *10*, 427, doi:10.3390/app10020427 .................. **157**

#### **Bruno Dino Bodini, Giacomo Lucenteforte, Pietro Serafin, Lorenzo Barone, Jacopo A. Vitale, Antonio Serafin, Valerio Sansone and Francesco Negrini**

Do Grade II Ankle Sprains Have Chronic Effects on the Functional Ability of Ballet Dancers Performing Single-Leg Flat-Foot Stance? An Observational Cross-Sectional Study Reprinted from: *Appl. Sci.* **2020**, *10*, 155, doi:10.3390/app10010155 .................. **169**

**Cristiane Ribeiro K ¨utter, Elo ´a Moreira-Marconi, Ygor Teixeira-Silva, Marcia Cristina Moura-Fernandes, Alexandre Gon¸calves de Meirelles, Mario Jos´e dos Santos Pereira, Shyang Chang, Jos ´e Alexandre Bachur, Laisa Liane Paineiras-Domingos, Redha Taiar, Mario Bernardo-Filho and Dan ´ubia da Cunha de S ´a-Caputo**

Effects of the Whole-Body Vibration and Auriculotherapy on the Functionality of Knee Osteoarthritis Individuals

Reprinted from: *Appl. Sci.* **2019**, *9*, 5194, doi:10.3390/app9235194 ................... **179**

**Claudia Figueiredo Azeredo, Patr´ıcia de Castro de Paiva, Leandro Azeredo, Aline Reis da Silva, Arlete Francisca-Santos, Laisa Liane Paineiras-Domingos, Adriana L´ırio Pereira da Silva, Camila Leite Bernardes-Oliveira, Juliana Pessanha-Freitas, M ´arcia Cristina Moura-Fernandes, Rubens Guimar ˜aes Mendon¸ca, Jos ´e Alexandre Bachur, Ygor Teixeira-Silva, Elo´a Moreira-Marconi, Eliane de Oliveira Guedes-Aguiar, Bruno Bessa Monteiro de Oliveira, M´ario Fritsch Neves, Luiz Felipe Ferreira-Souza, Vinicius Layter Xavier, Daniel Lago Borges, Ana Cristina Lacerda, Vanessa Amaral Mendon¸ca, Anelise Sonza, Redha Taiar, Alessandro Sartorio, Mario Bernardo-Filho and Dan ´ubia da Cunha de S ´a-Caputo**

Effects of Whole-Body Vibration Exercises on Parameters Related to the Sleep Quality in Metabolic Syndrome Individuals: A Clinical Trial Study Reprinted from: *Appl. Sci.* **2019**, *9*, 5183, doi:10.3390/app9235183 ................... **191**

Reprinted from: *Appl. Sci.* **2019**, *9*, 3559, doi:10.3390/app9173559 ................... **295**

### **About the Special Issue Editors**

**Redha Taiar**, Ph.D. Biomechanics, is currently a Professor at the University of Reims Champaign, France. His research focuses on industry engineering for medicine and high-level sport. He is an engineer for different industries like Arena for high-level sport and Sidas, Medicapteur, for medical development. For industry workers, his last work was for the Notrax Society on the conception and validation of anti-fatigue mats. On the topic of sport, his last works focus on the development of swimsuits for triathlon and swimming in the Brazil Olympic Games (2016) and the suit fabrics for skiing in the Olympic Games at Sotchi in 2014. He is a specialist on the biomechanics of health disease and rehabilitation. The resume of his research can be found at www.redha-taiar.com; Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0227-3884; Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=15823162100; PubMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=taiar+R.

**Mario Bernardo-Filho** is a Professor at the Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil. He is a physiotherapist, and his research involves integrative and complementary medicine (auriculotherapy and acupuncture) and mechanical vibrations generated in an oscillating/vibratory platform that produces whole-body vibration exercises (WBVE) when a subject is in contact with the platform. Studies to evaluate the consequences of WBVE and extracts of medicinal plants in rats are ongoing. Investigations about the effects of WBVE in individuals with different diseases (metabolic syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthrosis, and osteoporosis) and healthy people are also ongoing. He is a supervisor of various professionals who are preparing their Master of Sciences or Ph.D. thesis. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Rio de Janeiro State University. He was the Head of the First International Congress on Mechanical Vibration and Integrative and Complementary Practices, Cabo Frio, Brazil (2016). In this meeting, the World Association of Vibration experts (WAVex) was created, and 2018 marked the First Congress of the WAVex in Groningen, The Netherlands. He has more than 130 publications indexed in PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bernardo-filho).

### *Editorial* **Editorial "Biomechanical Spectrum of Human Sport Performance"**

#### **Redha Taiar 1,\* and Mario Bernardo-Filho 2**

Received: 27 February 2020; Accepted: 7 March 2020; Published: 10 March 2020

**Abstract:** Several parameters can influence our health capital today and can have a negative impact on our performance, whether physiological or mechanical. Indeed, our health and wellbeing are influenced by a range of social, cultural, economic, psychological, and environmental factors across our lives. These change as we progress through the key transition points in life—from infancy and childhood through our teenage years to adulthood, working life, retirement and the end of life. Sport can be a vector that links many of these factors. Whether it is high-performance sport or sedentary practice, sport is very important for the improvement of psychological wellbeing and physical health. Our overarching aim was to increase quality of life. Sedentary practice can increase mobility and reduce the risk of disease, so changing adults' behavior through sedentary practice could reduce illness and decrease costs to society concerning health problems. Furthermore, a higher frequency of practice can lead to improvements in technique and optimized performance. Our objective is to summarize the latest research in sport science and to quantify the most important parameters influencing human performance related to the health sciences for all age groups, throughout their lives.

**Keywords:** modeling and simulation in sport science; strength and conditioning; mechanical analyses of sports; sport medicine; injury in sport; human behavior; quality of life; applied science in musculoskeletal disorders

The organization of a movement is regulated by the nervous system, which is subdivided into a central nervous system (CNS), composed of the brain (brain, cerebellum and brain stem) and the spinal cord, and a peripheral nervous system (PNS), composed of nerves that extend throughout the body. During voluntary movement, the cortical areas interact with the lower areas of the brain and spinal cord through the cortico-spinal motor pathway. The command is, therefore, generated in the CNS and then routed via the SNP to the muscle that generates the movement. The execution of a voluntary movement requires the coordination of several muscle contractions so that the movement performed corresponds to the desired movement and is adapted to the environmental situation in which it is performed. Motor control refers to the processes responsible for the preparation, organization and execution of this movement and refers to the coordinated organization of the individual's sensory-motor functions analysis. The analysis of movement by scientists back to antiquity (Hippocrates, 460-377; Aristotle, 384-322. . . ) but the three-dimensional analysis of movement only began at the end of the last century with the work of the anatomist Wilhelm Braune and the mathematician Otto Fisher. These first works were devoted to the study of the march of the infantryman then required 8 to 10 hours of measurements and days of manual calculations, for the analysis of a movement. With the considerable developments in electronics and computer science, today's systems only take a few minutes to obtain the same type of results using biomechanical analysis. Biomechanics is, by definition, the study of the structure

and functioning of living beings. It is based on the laws of mechanics and on the methods of the mechanic with the aim of knowing and understanding in order to exploit, improve or restore the functional capacities of humans. In fact, the results carried can be modelized with the aim to decrease experimentations and to understand better the complexity of this system. The complexity of the model required aims to replace the complicated visible with the simpler invisible depends on the aims of the analysis but also on the nature of the approach: kinematic or kinetic. Kinematics concerns the analysis of motion, whereas kinetics studies the forces that cause or result from it (for example, the reaction of the ground when walking). Different models can be considered, ranging from the human body represented by its center of gravity, to a model integrating both motor control and a musculoskeletal model of the human body. All the methods and the latest knowledge's have the same objective improve the human health, well-being and performance. Health is defined as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity' [1]. This definition links health clearly with wellbeing. Moreover, health is a human right requiring physical and social approaches to be reached and maintained. In addition, wellbeing is highly related to a positive rather than neutral state, leading the health in being a desired positive aspiration. Health and wellbeing are influenced by a range of social, economic, cultural, psychological and environmental conditions to be considered along of the life. Exercise is a responsible key factor in maintaining the functional autonomy of the body and can contribute to the protection against undesirable situations. There are strong scientific evidences that lifelong exercise is associated with a longer health span, favoring the delay to the onset of several chronic conditions/diseases [2,3]. The relevance of the exercise against age-related risks for commitment of the health and wellbeing that lead to disease and disability is unquestionable [4,5]. Furthermore, sedentarism is associated with an elevated incidence, in various stages of the life, in particular during aging, of chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, cognitive decline, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cancer [6–14]. Regular exercise, additionally, improves health and decreases the incidence of oxidative-stress-related disease [6]. Sport, as an activity involving exercises, can be a vector that links many of these factors. Whether sport is high-performance sport or sedentary practice, it is very important for the improvement of psychological wellbeing and physical health. Indeed, our overarching aim was to increase quality of life. Sedentary practice can increase mobility and reduce the risk of disease, so changing adults' behavior through sedentary practice could reduce illness and decrease costs to society concerning health problems. Furthermore, a higher frequency of practice can lead to improvements in technique, and optimized performance. The objective of this Special Issue published by the Applied Sciences Journal is to summarize the most important biomechanical parameters influencing human performance related to the health sciences for all age groups, throughout their lives. The clinical and experimental studies presented here demonstrate the relevance of the exercises considering the Biomechanical Spectrum of Human Sport Performance.

In this Special Issue, 26 manuscripts [15–40] were published after the procedure of selection. Interesting manuscripts aimed on the quantification of human performance and his optimization. We will find studies permitting to determine the discriminate parameters of human performance as well as the latest technologies with the objective to analyze and understand the complexity of human mechanics and his performance in the different daily life tasks. This ranges from the improvement of sports performance to the rehabilitation of patients after injury.

**Author Contributions:** Investigation, R.T.; original draft preparation, R.T. and M.B.-F.; writing R.T. and M.B.-F.; review and editing, R.T. and M.B.-F.; visualization R.T. and M.B.-F.; supervision, R.T. and M.B.-F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

#### *Article*