Richard Budgett opened the batting for the symposium – his experience as an Olympian, long-time team physician and researcher leads him to look at ‘unexplained underperformance’ as a key issue.  ‘Labelling it as overtraining can make coaches twitchy’ and he explained that the topic has to be dealt with sensitively with coaches.  A good point. Remember that there is also that a long list of other conditions that impair performance (like hypothyroidism – Carl Lewis before the 1996 Olympics, diabetes mellitus – Stephen Redgrave).

Treatment of overtraining can take 6-8 weeks of relative rest. He also made the point that exercise – but ‘ridiculously low’ levels – is an important part of treatment. Still a tough problem.

Romain Meeusen also has great credibility on the science of overtraining – an expert on neuorendocrinology in exercise. He proposed a two-stage test diagnosing overtraining in 2010. At the symposium he highlighted that there are more review paper than original data papers on this topic! What I hadn’t realised was that the neuroendocrine profile of overtraining was the same as that in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  Fascinating! The similarity between overtraining and depression was also discussed. But the take home message was that there was no obvious ‘magic marker’ to characterize overtraining from a blood test. It remains a clinical diagnosis and one of exclusion.

Anca Ionescu shared long-term Romanian data that suggested athletes have a ‘personal profile’ – variables that signal early overtraining that are reproducible within the same athlete – an argument for ‘personalized medicine’.

AFC Conference on Science & Football Medicine

Kuala Lumpur March 18-20, 2011

The past 3 Asian Science and Football conferences (Tokyo; Kuala Lumpur & Muscat) were a great success with approx. 450 participants from all over the world.

KL promises a great program of keynote address symposiums, free papers, poster presentations  and clinical workshops in Sports Medicine.  It’s a “Low cost High output” activity at an excellent destination “Malaysia Truely Asia” – value for money. Here is the website: www.the-afc.com and you can email s.medicine@the-afc.com.

Be part of a stellar sport and exercise medicine event promoting Football for Health. Abstract deadline is January 31, 2011. Terrific destination for colleagues and friends.

Best wishes

Dato’ Gurucharan Singh
Chairman, OC for AFC Conference on Science and Football Medicine / Scientific Committtee

iPhone App  is being launched for the 2010 conference. (Sorry, non Apple users- wait for 2011!)

UKSEM iPhone App allows you to See what’s going on, where to go, exhibition details, speakers, plan your schedule, set reminders and link to our Video Replay.

Speakers and sessions will be uploaded to the UKSEM site immediately after the lecture- So you can review the conference presentations on our website, or on your iPad or iPhone. Don’t forget to Twitter feedback too!

If you can’t make it to the UKSEM London 2010, we’ll be at ExCel in 2011. Keep 23-26th November 2011 free. See you then!

The aim of ASICS UKSEM is to develop the multidisciplinary team- from GP to elite team doctor, physiotherapist in private practice, soft tissue therapist, strength and conditioning coach, or high performance coach. All to provide superior patient outcomes.

We are delighted to be endorsed by the Fitness Industry Association, The British Association of Sport Rehabilitators and Trainers (BASRaT) and The Physiological Society (PhysSoc). These partnerships help our speciality develop and advance. We are very excited about the future!

At the conference:

• Keynote Speaker, Dr Eddie Coyle speaks on The Limits of Human Performance.
• Lord Coe speaks about the Olympic Games, London 2012 (taking place at the same venue as the UKSEM!)
• Kevin Giles reveals more about the 5 in 5 UK schools project.
• 6 DJO Academic Awards has attracted more than 150 Abstract submissions for 40 oral presentations.
• Bolt-on workshops from Gambetta, Bosch & Giles, James Earl’s Anatamy Trains.
• BASEM Masterclass GP Programme runs a parallel GP question approach
• Exhibition stands by our 3 major supporters: ASICS (discussing new technologies), Technogym (launching a new cardiologist designed exercise prescription programme) and Maxinutrition (revealing exclusive research about safe weight loss).

See the UKSEM Website for more details. BJSM featured this event on the October cover and Editor’s Warm up.

Arthritis Research UK and the Institute of Sport and Exercise Medicine (ISEM) are holding a conference to investigate the prevention and management of osteoarthritis following sport or exercise.

Leading international speakers presenting at Tackling Osteoarthritis in Sport include Dr J Richard Steadman (Colorado), renowned for his knee surgery and rehabilitation work with elite sportspeople; and Jiri Dvorak (based in Switzerland), Chief Medical Officer to FIFA. The conference is hosted by Professor Alan Silman of Arthritis Research UK and Professor David Patterson of ISEM.

The two-day event will consider existing research into the development of osteoarthritis as a result of sporting activity, as well as debating and setting the agenda for future research.

It has been awarded 10 CPD credits by the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (UK).

Professor Silman says:

“Although many people feel they do not have access to medical expertise, we do know how to manage sports injuries in the short term. However, the same cannot be said for managing the longer term implications. There is a lack of knowledge about prevention of longer term problems especially the development of osteoarthritis. Many people who take part in regular sporting activity end up with debilitating pain throughout their lives due to previously sustained injuries or ‘wear and tear’.

“We need to learn from the world’s experts and create a research agenda to better understand the causes and management of osteoarthritis following sport or exercise. We welcome attendance and contributions from those who have an interest in this area, and in the course of future research.”

For further information and to secure your place at the conference, please visit the official website at www.sport.arthritisresearchuk.org. For further enquiries please contact Riikka Williams at sport@arthritisresearchuk.org or call +44 (0) 20 3008 6778.

This is really going to be an awesome meeting so beg, borrow, or just bust through the security to be part of this historic event.

The website is www.uksem.org, and there are regular updates on Twitter.

Organiser Andrew Franklyn-Miller reports that the participants will represent a very broad church; from physician to physiotherapist, soft tissue to strength and conditioning, physiologists to immunologists, coaches to fitness professionals. This is a  one stop shop programme where participants all learn from each other in a world class conference.

ASICS have joined us in a similar format to Australia to partner this, as Europe’s largest annual Sports and Exercise Medicine conference and help us develop it as a brand promoting excellence. We have an iPhone app on the way which will allow users to  track abstracts, identify where workshops and lectures are occurring, access our twitter feed /uksem  to post their thoughts and these posts will be broadcast on a big screen in the main hall. We are using the brand new ICC conference Centre at ExCeL, London, as well as one of London 2012′s competition venues. These state-of-the recording so attendees can catch up via the iPhone app later. There are also six £1000 academic prizes for best abstracts in a variety of categories.

The format this year is dual stream on each day with over 30 speakers from 7 countries so the delegate has bundles of choices.  We have a number of optional Saturday workshops from a trimuvirate of Vern Gambetta, Frans Bosch and Kelvin Giles on Athletic development  through high performance to rehabilitation, The Graston Myofascial technique , and hopefully The Tom Myers Anatomy trains workshops.

This year we are joined by the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Conference on our final day bringing  cutting edge performance in the rehabilitation of injured servicemen and women and techniques and evidence based protocols along with some inspiring tales of  prosthetic function and high performance.

Themes include High Performance, Rehabilitation, Immunology in Sport, Exercise Medicine, Sports Psychology, Innovations in Sports Medicine and  Myofacsial Injury.

Feel free to access the website for more information and help.

7- night luxury cruise and conference in the Galapagos Island plus a 4 night extension in Quito, Ecuador

“When the pelvis gives way, it’s tough to play: the role of the pelvis in recurrent hamstring and groin problems.”

In this highly anticipated conference, Linda-Joy (LJ) Lee and Diane Lee will illustrate the application of The Integrated Systems Model (ISM) to a wide variety of clinical presentations of recurrent hamstring and groin problems (disability and/or pain). The ISM, which is fully described in the  4th edition of The Pelvic Girdle (Elsevier, due for release in November 2010), provides a framework for the clinician to organize knowledge gained both from research and clinical experience. The approach is highly individual (patient-centered) and evidence-based (integrates the best available science and clinical expertise). By the end of the conference, participants will have the scientific rationale, clinical reasoning experience, and clinical skills to effect the best possible outcome for their patients with these challenging problems.

Please visit http://stuvacseminars.com/8.html for full costs, speaker bios, and itinerary information; send your expression of interest now to ensure you have a spot on this exciting adventure – email jennypynt@gmail.com

For sports medicine clinicians — doctors, physiotherapists and athletic
trainers — who work with Volleyball athletes, this Congress will
provide the most up to date practical information to prevent and treat
injuries because it features an outstanding faculty knowledgeable in
volleyball and keen to engage with conference registrants.

It is taking place in the beautiful Slovenian surrounds. Please see the
announcement so you can book travel, obtain the bests accommodation
booking, and meet the deadline to submit an abstract.

Click here to download the PDF information sheet (684kb)

There has been a lot of interest in Professor Paul Hodges’ December BJSM cover story and both his article and that of Garry Allison were in the ‘Top 10′ in January.

Here is a chance to catch up with Paul, along with well-known thoracic spine expert Linda-Joy Lee. This Medical/Physiotherapy ship based conference is in the High Arctic — visiting Spitsbergen, East Greenland and Iceland.

The conference is titled “Treating Lumbo-Pelvic Pain: Stabilise, Mobilise, Energise, Exercise?”. Dates are 6-19th July, 2009. The link for the conference and the program is:

http://www.peregrineadventures.com/Arctic/Conferences.html