Sports Medicine

Focus

• Interplay of health and physical activity across the full spectrum of engagement, performance, and loading capacity - from training therapy and preventive exercise to elite sports

• Individualization and decision support in preventive and competitive sport 

  • Understanding and optimizing individual response to exercise training 

  • Fitting exercise based and pharmaceutical prevention

  • Recovery management and injury risk mitigation in elite sports

• Molecular aspects of training adaptation and exercise physiology

• Gender differences in competitive sports (e.g. differences in trainability and performance capacity between cycle phases including their interindividual variability)

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Life span Perspective

• As many effects of training require long-term engagement, physical activity across the lifespan is an integral part of sports medicine. The overarching focus is individualization and decision support

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Externally Funded Projects

• I-REP Individualisierte Regeneration & Verletzungsprädiktion im Hochleistungssport.(Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft, ZMI4-070503/23-24, in Kooperation mit der Deutschen Sporthochschule Köln)

• The effect of using internal and external measures of exercise intensity to guide training prescription and monitoring on acute physiological response and chronic adaptations in healthy adults. (Tiroler Nachwuchsforscher*innenförderung, Dr. Mazzolari)

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Methods

• Physical examination and sports medical history 

• Spiroergometry with all relevant forms of exercise (bicycle ergometer, treadmill, hand crank, field tests) and for a wide range of study participants

• Capillary and venous blood sampling at rest and during exercise

• Measurement of oxygen saturation in blood and tissue

• Echocardiography and sonography (in laboratory and field)

• Muscle biopsies

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Publication Highlights

• Hecksteden A, Hoppstadter J, Bizjak DA, et al. Effects of acute exercise and training status on glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper (GILZ) expression in human skeletal muscle. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 2023; Epub ahead of print.

• Hecksteden A, Keller N, Zhang G, et al. Why Humble Farmers May in Fact Grow Bigger Potatoes: A Call for Street-Smart Decision-Making in Sport. Sports Medicine - Open. 2023 2023/10/14;9(1):94.

• Werner C, Hecksteden A, Morsch A, Zundler J, Wegmann M, Kratzsch J, Thiery J, Hohl M, Bittenbring J, Neumann F et al. Differential effects of endurance, interval and resistance training on telomerase activity and telomere length in a randomized, controlled study. Eur Heart J, 2019;40(1):34-46. (geteilte Erstautorenschaft)

• Barth V, Kasbauer H, Ferrauti A, Kellmann M, Pfeiffer M, Hecksteden A, Meyer T. Individualized Monitoring of Muscle Recovery in Elite Badminton. Front Physiol 2019; 10:10.3389/fphys.2019.00778 (geteilte Seniorautorenschaft)

• Ludwig N, Hecksteden A, Kahraman M, Fehlmann T, Laufer T, Kern F, Meyer T, Meese E, Keller A, Backes C: Spring is in the air: seasonal profiles indicate vernal change of miRNA activity. RNA Biol, 2019;16(8):1034-1043. (geteilte Erstautorenschaft)

• Hecksteden A, Meyer T. Blood-borne fatigue markers during major international football tournaments a retrospective analysis of data from the FIFA World Championships and UEFA European Championships 2006 – 2016. Sci Med Football, 2020;4(2):135-141.

• Hecksteden A, Skorski S, Egger F, Buder F, Kellner R, Meyer T. Dwarfs on the shoulders of giants: Bayesian analysis with informative priors in elite sports research and decision making. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. 2022(4): doi: 10.3389/fspor.2022.793603

• Hecksteden A, Schmartz G, Egyptien Y, aus der Fünten K, Keller A, Meyer T: Forecasting football injuries by combining screening, monitoring and machine learning. Sci Med Football. 2022. Epub ahead of print. doi: 10.1080/24733938.2022.2095006 (geteilte Erstautorenschaft)

• A full publication list of Prof. Hecksteden is available at: https://www.i-med.ac.at/sportmedizin/Publikationsliste_2310.pdf