Browsing by Author "Meeusen Romain"

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    Backyard running: Pushing the boundaries of human performance
    (John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2024) Meeusen Romain; De Pauw, Kevin; Ampe T.; Arauz, Y. L. Arenales
    Ultrarunning is gaining in popularity but no information is available on the physiological and psychological responses during backyard ultrarunning events. The aim of this study was to determine changes in cognitive function, markers of physiological resilience, and running performance during a backyard-running event. Twelve male ultrarunners (38 ± 8 years old, BMI: 23.5 ± 1.6 kg/m2, and VO2max: 60.8 ± 4.7 mL/min/kg) were monitored before, during, and after the event. Cognitive performance was determined using a cognitive test battery before, during, and after the event. During the event, the rating of perceived exertion (RPE), blood lactate concentration, and heart rate (HR) were assessed. Physical performance was investigated using the total number of completed laps and running speed per lap. Athletes completed 34 ± 17 laps equaling 227.8 ± 113.9 km with average speeds starting at 9.0 km/h and slowing down to 7.5 km/h at the end of the event. Physiological resilience (estimated using HR/speed) varied between athletes, with significantly lower values in the more proficient backyard runners at the end of the event (p < 0.05). HR and lactate levels remained constant, whereas a progressive increase in RPE was noticed (p ≤ 0.001). A significantly worsened reaction time was observed for several cognitive tasks after the event compared to baseline measures (p ≤ 0.05). These observations show that physiological resilience differs depending on the level of endurance performance of the athletes. Furthermore, the backyard ultrarunning event negatively impacted psychomotor speed. Therefore, the results suggest that implementing strategies that enhance physiological resilience and/or psychomotor speed could potentially have a positive effect on performance in ultraendurance activities
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    Current practices for mental fatigue quantification and induction in movement science: introducing the SPeCIFY guidelines
    (Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2025) Meeusen Romain; Schampheleer Emilie; Habay Jelle
    Mental fatigue (MF) is a complex phenomenon with significant implications for human performance, for which there are numerous studies investigating the effects of MF. Nevertheless, there is considerable variability in the approaches used to induce and quantify MF, making it hard to compare findings across studies and draw well-supported conclusions. This review addresses the methodological variability in the induction and quantification methods of MF in movement science in the following ways: on the one hand, by providing an overview of task design strategies to induce MF, emphasizing the importance of tailoring task duration, difficulty, and nature to individual participants and specific research contexts; on the other hand, by providing an overview of current methods used to quantify MF, including behavioural, subjective, and physiological measures, and highlighting the strengths and limitations of each. Finally, this review proposes a best-practice framework for MF research, incorporating multi-method approaches for the induction and quantification of MF and introducing the Settings, Protocol establishments, Confounders, Individuals, Framework, and Yield (SPeCIFY) reporting guidelines that aim at improving consistency and transparency in future MF studies.