Integrative Medicine for Field-Ready Performance Assessment
Date: Tuesday, 7 July
Time: 09:00 – 11:00
Session room: 3BC
Booth: Kurucsai, ID 22, Campus Level –
live demonstrations throughout the Congress days
Masterclass in Field-Ready and Point-of-Care Assessment: Integrating Human Performance Across Physiological and Pathophysiological Conditions
This session explores how field-ready and point-of-care assessments can improve the precision, validation and professional usability of performance evaluation under real-world conditions. Rather than treating laboratory testing as the sole standard, the symposium focuses on how emerging physiological and pathophysiological data can be integrated into established diagnostic frameworks in a scientifically robust yet practically applicable way.
Special attention will be given to translating scientific results for professional users, linking nutritional state, metabolic preparation, workload transitions and recovery to high-performance function through an integrated perspective that includes oxygen transport, metabolite and by-product dynamics and blood and muscle responses. Across the full continuum from warm-up to fatigue, rehabilitation, return-to-play and both metabolic and structural recovery, the session aims to demonstrate how validated field-based measurements can provide a more relevant and actionable understanding of human performance in practice.
CHAIRS
From Mitochondrial Resilience to Injury Prevention, Safety Performance and Field-Ready Diagnostics
Dr Gabor Kurucsai
Medical Doctor | Performance Pathophysiology & Longevity Medicine | Székesfehérvár, Hungary Medical CEO | 2.SportScience | Budapest, Hungary
Performance in the field cannot be understood through a single parameter alone. While classical threshold models are typically based on incremental laboratory testing, real team-sport environments involve repeated disruptor efforts followed by changing recovery demands, where lactate may remain elevated despite substantial metabolic recovery.
In our field-realistic, reversed workload model, lactate showed similar threshold-like values under physiologically distinct conditions, whereas acid–base balance, blood gas (pO₂/pCO₂) dynamics and substrate utilisation changed significantly.
These findings suggest that active and passive recovery reflect different metabolic states and that integrated oxygen logistics, acid–base regulation and fuel utilisation provide a more meaningful framework for interpreting fatigue, recovery and adaptation than any single parameter alone.
The Brain-Lung-Muscle Axis in Tier 1 Operations: Integrating Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Ventilatory Efficiency and Multi-Site NIRS to Predict Cognitive Resilience During Close-Quarter-Battle (CQB)
Dr Jeroen Molinger
(Tactical) System Biologist Lead, Clinical Research Program Lead | Co-Director, Duke Cardiovascular Performance and Innovation Center | (Tactical) System Biologist Lead, Senior Lead Clinical Medical Exercise Physiologist | Co-Director, Duke University Hospital | Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Duke Human Pharmacology and Physiology Laboratory (HPPL) | Clinical Research Program Lead Invasive CPX, Cathlab, Duke University Hospital | Duke Heart, advanced heart failure transplant cardiology | Duke School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Background: Tier 1 operators must maintain elite executive function while navigating the extreme physical and metabolic demands of Close Quarters Battle (CQB). While high cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a baseline requirement, the physiological mediators that preserve decision-making and shooting precision under acute, all-out exertion remain
poorly defined.
This study investigated how ventilatory efficiency and the coupling of cerebral (fNIRS) and peripheral muscle (mNIRS) oxygenation determine cognitive resilience in tactical environments.
SPEAKERS
Beyond the Lab: Field-Based Testing as a Practical Standard for Warm-Up, Recovery and Endurance Performance
Asst Prof Seyed Houtan Shahidi
PhD in Exercise Physiology | Faculty of Sports Sciences | Sports Performance Laboratory Director | Research Development Director | Level 1 Anthropometrist (ISAK) | Gedik University, Istanbul, Türkiye
Endurance running performance depends on the interaction between central oxygen delivery and peripheral muscle oxygen utilisation. Although V̇O₂max defines aerobic capacity, the ability to rapidly mobilise and distribute oxygen during changes in exercise intensity is often more important in competitive settings, where runners must respond to pace surges and fluctuating metabolic demands.
Recent research, including our ongoing work, suggests that priming strategies and respiratory preparation may improve oxygen uptake kinetics, ventilatory efficiency and muscle oxygen extraction, thereby reducing oxygen deficit at the onset of intense exercise.
By combining laboratory-based cardiopulmonary testing with field-based running assessments and wearable muscle oxygenation monitoring, we aim to translate physiological diagnostics into practical warm-up strategies that support endurance performance under real racing conditions.
Validated Sensor-Based Monitoring in Performance Science
Stijn Lintermans
Coordinating Research & Internships, Physical Department KV Mechelen Youth | Body & Brain Coach | Co-founder, Integrated Performance Training | Mechelen, Belgium
This presentation outlines a practical approach to translating performance data into meaningful decision-making support, with a particular focus on validated non-invasive monitoring methods in youth and adolescent athlete development.
It shows how monitoring tools can create value in sports science and performance practice when their outputs are interpreted correctly and applied in context. A key message of the presentation is that technological innovation alone is not sufficient; the practical value of data depends on proper validation and meaningful interpretation.
Overall, the session offers a concise and applied perspective on how performance science can generate more relevant and actionable insights in daily practice.
Overview of Muscle Oxygen Monitoring Applications
Roger Schmitz
CEO, Moxy Monitor | Hutchinson, Minnesota, USA
The presentation begins with a concise overview of how Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) works and what it measures in muscle. It then provides practical examples of how muscle oxygenation data can be used in athlete monitoring and performance support, with particular attention to breakpoint analysis and intensity control.
Additional applications include warm-up optimisation, identification of physiological limiters and rehabilitation and return-to-play decision-making after injury.
Wearable Muscle EMG | Myontec: Rapid Field Screening for Performance
Riitta Simonen
Head of Concepts and Research | Myontec | Kuopio, Finland
Myontec supports field-ready screening during dynamic training in team sports, ball sports, tennis and other high-intensity movement settings by identifying which muscle groups fatigue first and where left-right asymmetries emerge. It provides an objective snapshot of activation patterns, muscle relaxation level and load distribution under real-life conditions, helping practitioners quickly identify the most likely weak link.
This enables more targeted follow-up assessment and more confident decisions in training adjustment and return-to-play.
EMG in Football-Specific Dynamic Activities
Prof.Fabio Cavargini
Preparatore Atletico FIGC | Strength and Conditioning Coach | Master ELAV Sport Performance Top Certification | Città di Castello, Italy
Myontec supports field-ready screening during dynamic training in team sports, ball sports, tennis and other high-intensity movement settings by identifying which muscle groups fatigue first and where left-right asymmetries emerge. It provides an objective snapshot of activation patterns, muscle relaxation level and load distribution under real-life conditions, helping practitioners quickly identify the most likely weak link.
This enables more targeted follow-up assessment and more confident decisions in training adjustment and return-to-play.
The 150-Minute Guideline Is Not Enough: Laboratory Evidence for Intensity Misclassification, Delayed Lactate Handling, and Recovery-Dependent Metabolic Coupling in Obesity
Anna Hortobagyi
Nutrition Science student Semmelweis University | Budapest, Hungary
Dr. Kurucsai Medical Care Centre | Székesfehérvár, Hungary
Many adults with obesity remain metabolically non-responsive despite achieving ≥150 min/week, suggesting that time-based targets miss real-life intensity distribution.
In 91 participants, a lab protocol combining slow movement, individualised exercise, an all-out disruptor and structured recovery showed the most favourable metabolic profile during low-intensity activity, while higher intensity increased by-product load without better fat utilisation.
Lactate clearance was delayed even after recovery, highlighting recovery-dependent metabolic coupling beyond simple “minutes.”
Take-home message: in public health, guidelines alone are not enough; outcomes depend on selecting the right intensity (including downshifting to preserve oxygen availability) and on the quality of recovery within the broader lifestyle context.
