Cantor Tarperi

University of Verona | UNIVR · Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement

Previous studies in sports science suggested that regular exercise has a positive impact on human health. However, the effects of endurance sports and their underlying mechanisms are still not completely understood. One of the main debates regards the modulation of immune dynamics in high‐intensity exercise. As part of the “Run 4 Science” project i...

Vitamin D is increasingly recognized for its role in cardiovascular health beyond its well-established effects on bone metabolism. This review synthesizes findings from observational studies, interventional trials, and meta-analyses to clarify the mechanisms through which vitamin D impacts cardiovascular health, including its influence on vascular...

D'Emanuele, S, Boccia, G, Zardo, V, Durigon, V, Schena, F, and Tarperi, C. Strength, rate of force development, and force control evaluations to quantify upper-limbs asymmetries agreement in professional male volleyball players. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2024-Asymmetries are known to vary based on the nature of the sport and differ betwee...

The agreement between a wearable inertial sensor (GYKO, G) and the force platform (P) was assessed by evaluating test-retest and inter-rater reliability. Thirty-eight subjects were enrolled; the selected indices of balance were investigated over foot positions and (un)stable conditions. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of me...

Purpose This study aimed to verify whether the slowing of muscle contraction quickness, typically observed in states of fatigue, may worsen force control by decreasing the rate with which force fluctuations are modulated. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between rate of force development (RFD), and force fluctuations' magnitude (Coeffici...

Purpose The involvement of central command in central hemodynamic regulation during exercise is relatively well-known, although its contribution to peripheral hemodynamics at the onset of low-intensity contractions is debated. This study sought to examine central and peripheral hemodynamics during electrically-evoked muscle contractions (without ce...

This study aimed to determine which physiological factors impact net efficiency (ηnet) in oldest‐old individuals at different stages of skeletal muscle disuse. To this aim, we examined ηnet, central haemodynamics, peripheral circulation, and peripheral factors (skeletal muscle fibre type, capillarization and concentration of mitochondrial DNA [mtDN...

The neural drive to the muscle is the primary determinant of the rate of force development (RFD) in the first 50 ms of a rapid contraction. It is still unproven if repetitive rapid contractions specifically impair the net neural drive to the muscles. To isolate the fatiguing effect of contraction rapidity, 17 male adult volunteers performed 100 bur...

Objective: Cardiovascular events show morning preference and sex differences, and are related to aging and type 2 diabetes. We assessed circadian variations and sex differences in vascular conductance (VC) and blood flow (BF) regulations following a brief bout of forearm ischemia. Methods: Young healthy individuals (H18-30) and elderly without (...

This paper compares cardiopulmonary and neuromuscular parameters across three running aerobic speeds in two conditions that differed from a treadmill’s movement: flat condition (FC) and unpredictable roll variations similar to mountain trail running (URV). Twenty well-trained male runners (age 33 ± 8 years, body mass 70.3 ± 6.4 kg, height 1.77 ± 0....

Mental stress is a daily stimulus that can acutely activate the sympathetic nervous system. Whether sympathetic stimulation can augment central artery stiffness (CAS) has not yet been well documented. Moreover, sex differences in sympathetic neurovascular transduction have been reported. We assessed whether mental stress augments CAS in both sexes...

IntroductionAn impact of the sympathetic nervous system in the higher rate of cardiovascular events in the early morning compared to the evening has been claimed. Augmented sympathetic vasoconstriction increases cardiovascular risk by augmenting pulse pressure and cardiac afterload. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) further increases sympathetic neurovascular...

PurposeThe COVID-19 restrictions have limited outdoor physical activities. High-intensity training (HIT) may be a valid indoor alternative. We tested whether an indoor HIT is effective in maintaining vascular function and exercise performance in runners who reduce their usual endurance training, and whether a downhill HIT is as effective as an uphi...

Background The in-vivo regulation of vascular conductance (VC) is a continuous balance between endothelial vasodilation and sympathetic vasoconstriction. Although women may report blunted sympathetic vasoconstriction along with higher endothelial vasodilation than men, it is currently unknown whether the interaction between vasoconstriction and vas...

Walking and running are based on rapid burst-like muscle contractions. Burst-like contractions generate a Gaussian-shaped force profile, in which neuromuscular determinants have never been assessed. We investigated the neural and contractile determinants of the rate of force development (RFD) in burst-like isometric knee extensions. Together with m...

Cyclic motion variability reflects the movement error correction. Since movement motor control generally worsens with impaired biomechanical setups, we assessed whether the pedaling cadence variability (PCV) increases by worsening the bike fitting across multiple workloads. Sixteen cyclists performed multiple 5-min bouts of constant load cycling ex...

The incidence of cardiovascular events is higher in the morning than in the evening and differs between sexes. We tested the hypothesis that aortic stiffness, a compelling cardiovascular risk factor, increases in the morning than in the evening in young, healthy individuals between 18 and 30 years (H18–30) or in older individuals between 50 and 80...

Objective The supplementation of the nitric oxide precursor citrulline has been shown to boost athletic performance and recovery. Citrulline supplementation is appealing since it can be achieved legally through watermelon integration into the diet. However, the conditions where such supplementation improves exercise performance or physiological ind...

Objective . This project compared a new method to estimate the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) to the gold-standard cf-PWV technique. Approach . The cf-PWV was estimated from the pulse transit time (FPS-PTT) calculated by processing the finger photoplethysmographic signal of Finapres (FPS) and subject’s height only (brief mode) as well...

We investigated if dominance affected upper limbs muscle function, and we calculated the level of agreement in asymmetry direction across various muscle-function metrics of two heterologous muscle groups. We recorded elbow flexors and extensors isometric strength of the dominant and non-dominant limb of 55 healthy adults. Participants performed a s...

Purpose Augmented central arterial stiffness (CAS) increases cardiovascular risk. CAS can be augmented by physical exercise and sympathetic activation (SYMP) induced by stressful stimuli. Interestingly, sympathetic vasoconstriction triggered by a sympathetic stimulant is augmented immediately after a strenuous half-marathon compared to at rest. Thi...

Stem cells functions are regulated by different factors and non-conding RNAs, such as microRNA. MiRNAsplay an important role in modulating the expression of genes involved in the commitment and differentiation of progenitor cells. MiRNAs are post transcriptional regulators which may be modulated by physical exercise. MiRNAs, by regulating different...

Physical exercise has an impact in biasing attention to positive or negative emotional stimuli. While attentional shift to emotions varies with age, evidence is lacking on the effect of prolonged endurance exercise on age-related attentional bias to emotions. This study aims at filling this knowledge gap, by applying a dot-probe task to measure att...

Vascular conductance (VC) regulation involves a continuous balance between metabolic vasodilation and sympathetic vasoconstriction. Endurance exercise challenges the sympathetic control on VC due to attenuated sympathetic receptor responsiveness and persistence of muscle vasodilation, especially in endurance athletes, predisposing them to blood pre...

Purpose It is well established that mental fatigue impairs performance during lab-based endurance tests lasting less than 45 min. However, the effects of mental fatigue on longer duration endurance events and in field settings are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mental fatigue on performance during a half-marathon ra...

Objectives To investigate the impact of fast-start, steady or slow-start strategies of the running fraction in sprint triathlon on oxygen consumption, perception of fatigue and blood lactate. Design Thirteen male triathletes (age; 36.4±10.8 yy, height 174.8±7.9 cm, body mass 70.6±11.1 kg; V’O2max 62.4 ± 8.9 ml min⁻¹ kg⁻¹; mean ± SD) attended the l...

Because rate of force development (RFD) is an emerging outcome measure for the assessment of neuromuscular function in unfatigued conditions, and it represents a valid alternative/complement to the classical evaluation of pure maximal strength, this scoping review aimed to map the available evidence regarding RFD as an indicator of neuromuscular fa...

To investigate how leg preference affects net efficiency (ηnet), we examined central and peripheral hemodynamics, muscle fiber type, activation and force of preferred (PL) and non-preferred (NPL) leg. Our hypothesis was that PL greater efficiency could be explained by adaptations and interactions between central, peripheral factors and force. Fifte...

Background: Many recreational cyclists believe that lying upside-down after intense physical exertion speeds up physical recovery, enhancing subsequent exercise performance. However, the effectiveness of this technique has not yet been investigated. Methods: 25 active cyclists (10 females/15 males; age 23.3±3.8 years old) performed a supramaxima...

Muscle fatigue induced by voluntary exercise, which requires central motor drive, causes central fatigue that impairs endurance performance of a different, non-fatigued muscle. This study investigated the impact of quadriceps fatigue induced by electrically-induced (no central motor drive) contractions on single-leg knee-extension (KE) performance...

Muscle fatigue induced by voluntary exercise, which requires central motor drive, causes central fatigue that impairs endurance performance of a different, non-fatigued muscle. This study investigated the impact of quadriceps fatigue induced by electrically-induced (no central motor drive) contractions on single-leg knee-extension (KE) performance...

Acute changes in central control and peripheral properties of motor units following a half-marathon has never been examined in master athletes. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to estimate the firing properties and twitch characteristics of motor units after a 21-km race in a group of ten trained older adults. High-density surface EMG...

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the running kinematics and the spring mass model mechanics over an entire half-marathon race in male and female athletes on different slopes (- 7%, 0% and +7%). Methods: 59 recreational runners (39 males and 20 females) participated in this study. Their running steps at own best self-selected spee...

We examined whether trained women exhibit similar cardiovascular and cardiac baroreflex alterations after a half-marathon compared to men. Thirteen women (39.1 ± 9.3 years; 165 ± 6 cm; 58.2 ± 7.5 kg; maximal aerobic speed (MAS): 13.7 ± 2.2 km·h−1) and 12 men (45.7 ± 10.5 years; 178 ± 7 cm; 75.0 ± 8.3 kg; MAS: 15.8 ± 2.2 km·h−1) ran an official half...

Background Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a powerful neuropeptide that is strongly involved in headache pain pathogenesis by triggering vasodilation, mast cell degranulation and neurogenic inflammation. This evidence has prompted us to investigate the acute influence of endurance exercise on CGRP concentration in blood. Methods The stud...

Nowadays, it is widely acknowledged that low physical activity levels are associated with an increase in terms of both disease recurrence and mortality in cancer survivors. In this light, deciphering those factors able to hamper or facilitate an active lifestyle is crucial in order to increase patients’ adherence to physical activity. The purpose o...

Blood flow (BF) to exercising muscles is susceptible to variations of intensity, and duration of skeletal muscle contractions, cardiac cycle, blood velocity, and vessel dilation. During cyclic muscle activity, these elements may change proportionally with or without direct optimal temporal alignment, likely influencing BF to active muscle. Ideally,...

Purpose. This project aimed to evaluate the simple visual reaction time (SVRT) changes in runners of both sexes before and after a 21.1km run. Methods. 20 male (age 35.3±17.1 years, BMI 23.5±3.3 kg/m²) and 20 female (age 32.2±14.3 years, BMI 24.8±4.2 kg/m²) amateur runners were evaluated 30 minutes before and after a half-marathon run under compet...

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of spring mass model characteristics (e.g. stiffness) and Achilles tendon proprieties in determining the energy cost of running in half marathon runners. Methods: Achilles tendon characteristics (i.e. cross sectional area -ATCSA- and resting length - ATL-) were measured on 32 males...

Purpose: To compare the impact of two different training intensity distributions in terms of conditional and performance parameters and spent time to training in recreational athletes. Methods: Two different training intensity distribution model were performed for 8 weeks by 38 recreational runners. Runners recruited were randomly assigned to 2 dif...

Nowadays, it is widely acknowledged that low physical activity levels are associated with an increase in terms of both disease recurrence and mortality in cancer survivors. In this light, deciphering those factors able to hamper or facilitate an active lifestyle is crucial in order to increase patients’ adherence to physical activity. The purpose o...

Aims. This field experiment examined whether trained people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) have similar cardiovascular and baroreflex alterations after a 21-km running race when compared to healthy people. Methods. Nine T1D (39.0±11.1 yr; 175.0±10.2 cm; 70.8±8.7 kg) were matched with 9 healthy participants (42.4±5.8 yr; 175.7±6.7 cm; 72.1±8.5...

Purpose. Previous studies have suggested that simple visual reaction time (SVRT) was shorter in men than women at rest and prolonged by general aerobic exercise. However, there has been a poor investigation of SVRT changes in athletes after prolonged and strenuous exercises. The aim of this study was to determine the SVRT changes in endurance-train...

Blood flow (BF) to exercising muscles is susceptible to variations of intensity and duration of skeletal muscle contractions, cardiac cycle and arterial pulse wave (PW). During cyclic muscle contractions, these elements increase proportionally without an optimal matching, thus affecting BF. To maximize BF to the contracting muscle, we synchronized...

Background: Although regular performance of aerobic physical exercise is pivotal for preserving or improving health and fitness, scarce information is available on plasma lipids changes after middle-distance running in euglycemic and diabetic subjects. Methods: Eleven male euglycemic amateur runners (mean age 41±6 years) and 9 male diabetic amateu...

Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and recurrent stroke-like episodes syndrome (MELAS) is a rare degenerative disease. Recent studies have shown that resistant training (RT) can ameliorate muscular force in mitochondrial diseases. However, the effects of RT in MELAS are unknown. The aim of this case report was to investigate the effe...

Attentional focus in endurance sports has been found to largely affect performance. To deal with discomfort, fatigue, and pain associated with endurance performance under pressure, athletes tend to direct attention to both internal (e.g., bodily) sensations and external (e.g., environmental) stimuli. The purpose of this study, framed within the mul...

The aim of this study was to analyze the ability of recreational master runners to accurately maintain their pre-race target time and compare pacing and perceived exertion (RPE) of different groups of athletes according to how close they were to their predicted time. One hundred and seventy half marathoners ( n = 135 males; 45 ± 6.6 yrs and n = 35...

Running economy (RE) has been defined as the most important determining factor in endurance performance in both elite and recreational runners. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of flywheel strength training (FST) and high-intensity training (HIT) protocols on RE and strength parameters in a group of recreational runners. Twenty-...

The effect of muscle fatigue on rate of force development (RFD) is usually assessed during tasks that require participants to reach as quickly as possible maximal or near-maximal force. However, endurance sports require athletes to quickly produce force of submaximal, rather than maximal, amplitudes. Thus, this study investigated the effect of musc...

Purpose. Reduced cardiac parasympathetic activity and depressed heart rate variability (HRV) have been reported in Type 1 diabetes (T1D) (Dafaalla et al., 2016). Exercise is a non-pharmacological therapeutic tool recommended by diabetes treatment guidelines (Colberg et al., 2016). Spontaneous exercise could be of high added-value for patients but t...

Purpose: The control of peripheral circulation during exercise is a complicated and multifaceted phenomenon involving neural (central command and sympathetic nerve activity) and peripheral aspects (nitric oxide, temperature and pH). Despite the involvement of central command in the regulation of central hemodynamics at the onset and during steady-s...

Since the impact of possible prothrombotic factors on blood coagulation resulting from exercise remains elusive, this study investigated the acute effects of middle-distance endurance running on blood coagulation parameters in middle-aged athletes. The study population consisted of 33 male endurance runners who were engaged in a 21.1 km run under c...

The results of our study, which is based on a larger sample size than previous investigations, show that the concentration of plasma glucose is significantly decreased from 3 to 24 hours after endurance running. Unlike plasma glucose, HbA1c values were almost unchanged up to 24 hours after a half-marathon run, thus suggesting that this parameter ma...

Background: Physical activity is an essential part of prevention and therapeutic management in diabetes. Nevertheless, doubts remain as to whether endurance sports may contribute to worsen an enhanced oxidative DNA injury, frequently observed in diabetics. Methods: The study population consisted of 19 euglycemic and 16 diabetic amateur runners (9 w...

Women are known to be less fatigable than men in single-joint exercises, but fatigue induced by running has not been well understood. Here we investigated sex differences in central and peripheral fatigue and in rate of force development (RFD) in the knee extensors after a half-marathon run. Ten male and eight female amateur runners (aged 25 – 50 y...

Background The sympatho-adrenergic activation during exercise is implicated in many cardiovascular respiratory and metabolic adaptations which have been thought to partially explain the different levels of performance observed between trained and untrained subjects. To date, no evidence exists about the association between competition performance a...

A specific subset of micro RNAs (miRs), including miR-133 and miR-206, is specifically expressed in muscle tissue, so that they are currently defined as muscular miRs (myomiRs). To further elucidate the role of myomiRs in muscle biology, we measured miR-133a and miR-206 in plasma of 28 middle-age recreational athletes. The study population consiste...

Aim: Age-related changes in motor unit properties are essential to understand muscle behavior after exercise in older adults. In this study, we compared the changes in motor unit discharge rates during steady isometric contractions before and after a half-marathon in elderly individuals. Methods: During the event Run4Science, we recorded high-densi...

We describe here the variation of hematological and biochemical parameters in a 93-year-old man, who successfully completed a 100-km distance run. The athlete completed the trial at an average speed of 5.6 km/h. The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) increased immediately after crossing the finishing line and peaked 1 day afterward, displaying...

We examined whether the presence of fatigue induced by prolonged running influenced the time courses of force generating capacities throughout a series of intermittent rapid contractions. Thirteen male amateur runners performed a set of 15 intermittent isometric rapid contractions of the knee extensor muscles, (3s/5s on/off) the day before (PRE) an...

Background: Despite being a recessive trait, the O blood group is the most frequent worldwide among the ABO blood types. Since running performance has been recognized as a major driver of evolutionary advantage in humans, we planned a study to investigate whether the ABO blood group may have an influence on endurance running performance in middle-a...

Background: The clinical use of micro RNAs (miRNAs) in the diagnostics of muscle injury should take into account the possible influence of many variables such as genetic factors, age, sex, ethnic origin, body and tissue composition as well as physical fitness. Therefore, the present study was designed to identify potential physiological determinant...

Background: This study was aimed to investigate the acute effect of medium-distance running on bile acids concentration and composition, in order to verify whether the positive impact of physical exercise on cancer risk may also be mediated by variation of bile acids concentration and composition in serum. Methods: The concentration and composition...

Monitoring surface electromyographic (EMG) signals can provide useful insights for characterizing muscle fatigue, which is defined as an exercise-induced strength loss. This experiment investigated the muscle fiber conduction velocity (CV) changes induced by an endurance run. The day before and immediately after a half-marathon run (21.097 km) 11 a...

Background ALU element instability could contribute to gene function variance in aging, and may partly explain variation in human lifespan. Objective To assess the role of ALU element instability in human aging and the potential efficacy of ALU element content as a marker of biological aging and survival. Design Preliminary cohort study. Methods...

Minimal Datasets from Findings. (XLSX)

Monitoring surface electromyographic (EMG) signals can provide useful insights for characterizing muscle fatigue, which is defined as an exercise-induced strength loss. This experiment investigated the muscle fiber conduction velocity (CV) changes induced by an endurance run. The day before and immediately after a half-marathon run (21.097 km) 11 a...

Knee extensor and elbow flexor muscles have been demonstrated to have similar fatigability, i.e. time to task failure at submaximal force level, in healthy non-trained individuals. This experiment investigated if continuative endurance training can influence the fatigability of these two muscle groups in amateur runners. Surface electromyography wa...