Gennaro Boccia

Gennaro Boccia
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Gennaro verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
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Gennaro verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
University of Turin | UNITO · Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences

PhD
Exploring neuromechanical factors of Rate of Force Development, its fatigability, and adaptations to targeted training.

About

133
Publications
43,466
Reads
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1,902
Citations
Additional affiliations
July 2020 - present
University of Turin
Position
  • Senior Researcher
April 2017 - March 2018
University of Turin
Position
  • Research Associate
October 2015 - present
University of Verona
Position
  • Research Associate

Publications

Publications (133)
Article
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...
Article
The aim of the study was to analyse individual performance trajectories of professional (PRO) Italian cyclists across their careers. It sought to compare the performance progression of successful and unsuccessful PRO cyclists, analyse the best predictors of success in PRO cyclists and explore whether the relative age effect (RAE) influences PRO suc...
Article
Full-text available
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...
Article
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This study aimed to compare neuromuscular fatigability of the elbow flexors and extensors between athletes with amputation (AMP) and athletes with spinal cord injury (SCI) for maximum voluntary force (MVF) and rate of force development (RFD). We recruited 20 para-athletes among those participating at two training camps (2022) for Italian Paralympic...
Article
Please cite this article as: P.R. Brustio, M. Stival, M. Cardinale, et al., Performance pathways in elite middle-and long-distance track and field athletes: the influence of a successful youth, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (2024), https://doi. Abstract word count: 249 Manuscript word count: 3321 Number of Tables: 1 Number of Figures: 2...
Article
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Objective: The firing instants of single motor units (MUs) can be identified by decomposing electromyograms (EMG) detected with intramuscular or grids of surface electrodes. The latter is sometimes preferred due to its larger detection volume and non-invasiveness. When the interest is in firing instants and not in investigating the activity of spec...
Article
Full-text available
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...
Article
The relative age effect (RAE) is a selection bias resulting from the interaction between the selected dates and birthdates. Nevertheless, the impact of birthdate on the junior-to-senior transition in international track and field is unclear. This study aimed to quantify the RAE's magnitude and test if birthdate affects the junior-to-senior transiti...
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Football is a popular sport, but little is known about the youth-to-senior transition rates in elite players, particularly in large and successful countries. This study aims to investigate the youth-to-senior transition rate in the Italian national football team, both prospectively and retrospectively, and to explore if Relative Age Effects (RAEs)...
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This study aimed to evaluate youth-to-senior transition and the relative age effect in Italian female football national teams. Birthdate data of 774 female players selected for Under 17 (N = 416), 19 (N = 265) and National Senior team (N = 93) were analysed. The youth-to-senior transition rate was determined by the number of youth players competing...
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We aimed to quantify the prevalence of track and field sprinters competing at a world-class level in more than one discipline, and we describe the career characteristics of single- and double-discipline athletes in terms of peak performance and the age of peak performance. The career performance of athletes ranked in the top 200 positions of the Wo...
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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....
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Objective: Crosstalk in surface electromyogram (EMG) is an important open problem and the common strategy of reducing it through spatial filters needs improvements. Methods: We evaluated experimentally the optimal spatio-temporal filter (OSTF), i.e., a recent approach that adapts to the subject, filtering different EMG channels both in time and spa...
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The present cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the impact of physical activity level (PA) on physical fitness by controlling for individual characteristics in Italian children. A total of 329 children (girls n = 155, 42,6%; from five primary schools, 17 classes) aged 8–10 filled out the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C...
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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...
Article
Objective: Of recent interest is the use of EMG biofeedback to make subjects aware of their stabilizers' activation associated with scapular retraction during exercise, addressing challenges related to EMG detection. Whether there is an optimal bipolar positioning discriminating the stabilizers' activation with retraction from neutral scapular pos...
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In rugby union, physical characteristics may partially contribute to long-term career progression, especially during adolescence. Therefore, the primary purpose of the study was to evaluate Italian regional rugby union academy players’ (i.e., under-18) anthropometric and physical characteristics during a competitive season. Body mass, height, upper...
Article
Purpose: This study aimed to describe the career performance progression of elite early- and later-success international swimmers competing in sprint events (ie, 50 and 100 m). Methods: The career performance trajectories of 6003 swimmers (50.9% females; 58,760 unique records) competing in the 4 swimming strokes were evaluated. Swimmers with ear...
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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...
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The purpose of this study was to assess the perceived usefulness, actual use and barriers to the implementation of recovery strategies among basketball practitioners. 107 participants (strength and conditioning coaches, sport scientists, performance specialists) from different countries and competitive levels completed an online survey. Most partic...
Article
Objectives To validate the application of Corrective Adjustment Procedures (CAPs) to remove Relative Age Effects (RAEs) in youth athletic contexts, this study estimated the longitudinal relationships between decimal age (chronological and relative) and performance in male and female long jumpers. Using trendlines, CAPs were applied, and RAE distrib...
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The present study aimed to determine a cut-off value following the filling in of a questionnaire (PAQ-C-It) to identify active Italian children. One-hundred-twenty-nine primary school children (5 Piedmont schools; 47.3% female; mean age = 10 ± 1 years) wore an accelerometer (Actigraph wGT3X-BT) to objectively quantify individual moderate-to-vigorou...
Article
Background & Aims Sarcopenia is a muscle disorder associated with loss of muscle mass, strength and function. Early screening, diagnosis and treatment may improve outcome in different disease conditions. A wide variety of tools for estimation of muscle mass is available and each tool has specific technical requirements. However, different investiga...
Article
Although it has already been demonstrated that Nordic walking has some peculiar biomechanical features with respect to walking, the effects on balance and trunk coordination are still unknown. Our aim here was to compare margins of stability, hip stabilizer muscle activation and scapular-pelvis coordination (mean and variability of continuous relat...
Article
Full-text available
The relative age effect (RAE) concerns those (dis)advantages and outcomes resulting from an interaction between the dates of selection and birthdates. Although this phenomenon is well known in a male context, limited data are available in female sports. Thus, the aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence and magnitude of the RAE in a female...
Article
Purpose : The primary aim of this study was to evaluate whether the internal (session rating of perceived exertion [sRPE] and Edwards heart-rate-based method) and external training load (jumps) affect the presession well-being perception on the day after (ie, +22 h), according to age and tactical position, in elite (ie, Serie A2) female volleyball...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Squatting is a core exercise for many purposes. However, there is still controversy surrounding the practice of targeting specific muscle groups when performing the back squat with different stance widths or foot positions. Therefore, this study aimed to assess lower limb muscle activation during different form of back squat when adopt...
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Background and Objectives: Gait disorders represent one of the most disabling aspects in multiple sclerosis (MS) that strongly influence patient quality of life. The improvement of walking ability is a primary goal for rehabilitation treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of robot-assisted gait training (RAGT) in associat...
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Full-text available
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...
Article
This retrospective study investigated whether corrective adjustment procedures can remove the relative age effect (RAE) from world-class junior sprinters at the beginning of their career. A total of 2,918 male and 3,029 female athletes competing in sprint races (100 m, 200 m, and 400 m) of the World Athletics lists between 2000 and 2018 were consid...
Article
Objectives To quantify the junior-to-senior successful transition rate in sprint swimming events in elite European performers. Design Retrospective analysis of publicly available competition data collected between 2004 and 2019. Method The yearly performance of 6631 European swimmers (females = 41.8% of the sample) competing in 50 and 100 m frees...
Article
Purpose: This study investigated (1) the transition rate of elite world-class throwers, (2) the age of peak performance in either elite junior and/or elite senior athletes, and (3) if relative age effect (RAE) influences the chance of being considered elite in junior and/or senior category. Methods: The career performance trajectories of 5108 th...
Article
Purpose: To quantify how many of the top 50 under-18 (U18) sprinters in the world managed to become top 50 ranked as adult competitors. The authors also described the career trajectory of athletes ranked in the top 50 during either U18 or senior category. Methods: A total of 4924 male and female athletes competing in sprint races and ranked in t...
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The aim of this study was to investigate the response to non-tackle and tackle field-based training on upper- and lower-limb neuromuscular function in elite rugby union players. Nine elite senior elite rugby union players (mean age = 21 ± 2 years; height = 184 ± 7 cm; body mass 91.0 ± 9 kg) were evaluated before and immediately following 17 trainin...
Article
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This study aimed 1) to estimate the transition rate for top 50 ranked track and field jumpers 2) to compare the performance progression of top 50 ranked senior jumpers (top50 senior) to those who failed to be top 50 ranked in the senior category despite being top 50 ranked in the under 18 category (only U18) and 3) to verify if relative age effect...
Article
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The Daily Mile is a promising initiative aimed at removing some of the barriers to physical activity in the school setting. This quasi-experimental study investigated the dose–effect of The Daily Mile on cardiorespiratory fitness, waist-to-height ratio, and body mass index (BMI) after a period of 3- and 6-months. A total of 279 students (mean age =...
Article
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Purpose: The present study aimed to verify if practicing tackles during rugby union training sessions would affect the players' internal training load and acute strength loss. Method: A total of 9 male Italian Serie A rugby union players (age: 21 [2] y) were monitored by means of an integrated approach across 17 sessions, 6 with tackles (WT) and...
Article
Purpose: To evaluate if the internal training load (ITL; Edwards heart rate [HR]-based and session-rating of perceived exertion [RPE] methods) is affected by the presession well-being perception, age, and position in elite (ie, Serie A2) female volleyball training. Methods: Twelve female elite volleyball players (age: 22 [4] y, height: 1.80 [0.0...
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Previous studies suggest that low-frequency repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) over contralateral premotor cortex (PMC) might ameliorate Focal Hand Dystonia (FHD) symptoms. In the present study behavioral and muscle activity outcomes were explored in a patient with FHD following a single and multiple sessions of rTMS. The patient's...
Article
Full-text available
The Daily Mile™ is an innovative school-based intervention that requires children to run or jog outside for 15 min at a self-selected pace during class time. Today, only one study has investigated the efficacy of The Daily Mile on physical fitness, which was conducted with Scottish children. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiven...
Poster
The specific purposes of our study were to examine the relationship between the Functional Movement Screen tests and the Motorfit and to investigate the relationship between the total scores of the FMS and the Motorfit, while controlling for the effect of confounding variables. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) consists of 7 basic movements (Coo...
Article
Purpose: It has been suggested that closed kinetic chain exercises may induce more balanced activation of vastus medialis (VM) and lateralis (VL) compared to open kinetic chain exercise. This study aimed to 1) compare between-vasti motor unit activity and 2) analyze the combined motor unit behavior from both muscles between open and closed kinetic...
Article
Full-text available
Many previous studies in national team sports did not report evidence about relative age effect (RAE) in senior categories. This study aimed for the first time to determine if the RAE may specifically affect the early, but not the late, phase of senior career in elite team sports. A total of 3,319 birthdates (basketball: n = 642; rugby: n = 572; so...
Article
Full-text available
The relative age effect (RAE) is a common phenomenon observed in youth sports and is characterized by a significant over-representation of athletes born close to the date of selection. However, there is a lack of research on RAE in world-class track and field athletes and it is not clear if this effect persists into adulthood. Thus, this study exam...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: The neuromuscular quickness capacity can be assessed by calculating the rate of torque development (RTD) during ballistic contractions of maximal (RTDmaximal) or submaximal (RTDsubmaximal) amplitudes. In a series of ballistic contractions of submaximal amplitudes, the RTD scaling factor (RTD-SF) represents the slope of the linear regres...
Article
Purpose: It has been hypothesized that one of the main causes for patellofemoral pain is a higher activation of the vastus lateralis (VL) compared with the vastus medialis (VM) muscle. It has been suggested that this difference in activation, likely induces a lateral shift of the patella. However, this observation is not consistent across all studi...
Article
Full-text available
OBJECTIVES: Neuromuscular efficiency (NME) is impaired in fibromyalgia (FM). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a medical treatment using 100% of oxygen through an oxygen mask. HBOT in FM induces changes in cortical excitability and a secondary reduction in pain and muscle fatigue. However, there are still no direct data indicating changes in musc...
Article
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-...
Article
Full-text available
Evaluating the rate of torque development (RTD) in isometric ballistic contraction targeting submaximal torques is usually overlooked in the literature. In a series of isometric ballistic contractions targeting a range of submaximal torque values, there is a linear relationship between the peak torque and the peak RTD obtained in each contraction....
Article
Full-text available
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...
Conference Paper
Aim: The aim of this study was to monitor elite male Italian rugby training (20 Serie A players, age: 22±3 yrs) with an integrated analysis. Methods: During three in-season training sessions (S1, S2, S3; 113±13 min), heart rate (HR), internal training load (ITL; Edwards, 1993), time-motion (GPS: total distance, duration, mean speed, % high acceler...
Conference Paper
Aim: Athletes are grouped according to their year of birth to arrange young athletes in sports competitions. Therefore, older athletes (first weeks of a year) could be advantaged compared with relatively younger athletes (i.e., last weeks of the same year) in sport performance (Cobley et al., 2009), and in the process of sport talent identification...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: This study investigated the effects of acute hypoxic exposure on post-exercise cardiac autonomic modulation following maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Methods: Thirteen healthy men performed CPET and recovery in normoxia (N) and normobaric hypoxia (H) (FiO2 = 13.4%, ≈ 3500 m). Post-exercise cardiac autonomic modulation w...
Article
Full-text available
The motivation to perform physical activity is a crucial factor in achieving a persistent active lifestyle. However, motivation decreases with increasing age from childhood to adolescence. The promotion of physical activity in educational settings might be an important tool to increase motivation and, consequently, to decrease sedentary behavior. T...
Data
Data from participants in this study. (PDF)
Article
Full-text available
Brief bouts of physical activity during the school day are an innovative method for increasing physical activity in the school setting. The purpose of the study was to investigate if the introduction of an outdoor active break, based on walking and running, in a middle school in Italy is feasible in terms of implementation (i.e., adherence, costs,...
Data
Data from teachers enrolled in this study. (PDF)
Data
Data from children enrolled in this study. (PDF)
Article
Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the performance career trajectories for Italian athletes that participated in sprint, hurdles, discus throw, and shot-put athletics events. Design: Retrospective study, data collected between 1994 and 2014. Methods: A total of 5929 athletes (female: n=2977, 50.2%) were included in t...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Although short-term (approximately 10-min) fatiguing DP has been reported not to alter the joint kinematics or displacement of the centre of mass (COM) of high-level skiers, we hypothesize that prolonged DP does change these kinematics, since muscular strength is impaired following endurance events lasting longer than 2 h. Methods: Du...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Introduction: Hypoxia acts as a stimulus for an increased sympathetic activity and a reduced parasympathetic cardiac control, that can turn in slower recovery of HR (HRR) and HRV indices after sub-maximal exercise, but not after brief periods of supra-maximal exercise (Al Haddad et al., 2012). However, the effects of hypoxia on cardiac autonomic r...
Article
Full-text available
The relative age effect (RAE; i.e., an asymmetry in the birth distribution) is a bias observed in sport competitions that may favour relatively older athletes in talent identification. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the presence of RAE in elite soccer players competing in the Italian championships, even considering the discrimi...
Data
Data from participants in this study. (PDF)
Article
Full-text available
Due to poling action and upper body engagement, Nordic walking (NW) has additional health benefits with respect to conventional walking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in muscle activation and metabolic responses between NW, performed with the technique suggested by NW instructors, and with some modifications in the way to mo...
Data
Animation data illustrate three consecutive cycles of subject 4 for walking. The dotted lines represent the left side and the continuous lines represent the right side. Use “repeat” function on the movie player to see the stick walking continuously. (MOV)
Data
Animation data illustrate three consecutive cycles of subject 4 for NWshuolder performed with suggested technique. The dotted lines represent the left side and the continuous lines represent the right side. Poling force for left and right side represented by red and blue bar draw on the respective poles with length proportional to force value. Use...
Data
Animation data illustrate three consecutive cycles of subject 4 for NWweak performed with suggested technique. The dotted lines represent the left side and the continuous lines represent the right side. Poling force for left and right side represented by red and blue bar draw on the respective poles with length proportional to force value. Use “rep...