Marcos López-Flores

• Sports Science BSc. MSc. PhD.
• Researcher at European Network for Innovation and Knowledge (EUNIK)

Introduction: Previous research has not explored features and behavior change techniques (BCTs) in physical activity (PA) promotion interventions among adolescents, including mobile health (mHealth) applications. Purpose: This study aims to conduct a narrative literature review of adolescent PA promotion apps, examining their theoretical foundation...

Citation: Teques, A.P.; de Oliveira, R.F.; Bednarikova, M.; Bertollo, M.; Botwina, G.; Khomutova, A.; Turam, H.E.; Dinç,İ.; López-Flores, M.; Teques, P. Social and Emotional Skills in at-Risk Adolescents through Participation in Sports. Sports 2024, 12, Abstract: (1) Background: Adolescents who are under the care of child and youth institutions are...

Purpose: This study explores how children and adolescents perceive physical activity (PA) and PA apps. We aim to understand their perceptions, past experiences, and expectations of PA and PA apps. Methods: Participants (N=39) aged 11-15 from five European countries: Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Spain (ES), and Sweden (SWE) particip...

Purpose: This study explores how children and adolescents perceive physical activity (PA) and PA apps. We aim to understand their perceptions, past experiences, and expectations of PA and PA apps. Methods: Participants (N=39) aged 11-15 from five European countries: Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Spain (ES), and Sweden (SWE) particip...

Objective This study aimed to analyze the actigraphy-based sleep parameters in wheelchair basketball (WB) athletes during the 3 weeks leading up to the playoffs, the week of playoffs, and the week after playoffs. Secondarily, the relationship between training load, sleep, and recovery was evaluated. Methods During 5 consecutive weeks, 10 male elite...

Background The health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a considerable increase in the psychopathology of COVID-19 patients and among the general population. This study aims to conduct the psychometric analysis of the scale of concern about COVID-19 in the Spanish population and to estimate the level of concern and dysfunctional anx...

This study aimed to assess the trends of health-related cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) during two school years with a 3-month summer break in children and adolescents. A 2-year longitudinal study, including 440 6th to 8th graders (218 boys), mean age 12.3 years, was conducted. The Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) was used t...

This study investigates existing support services/systems that support junior dual career athletes in seven different countries. Specifically, the study aimed to identify: 1) What support services/systems are available for junior dual career athletes in the seven countries? and 2) Are there any similarities or differences between the seven countrie...

The purpose of this study was to provide data regarding the prevalence and trends of adolescents' healthy lifestyles from 32 countries between 2006 and 2014 by sex and age interval. The data used in the present study were derived from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2006, 2010, and 2014 international database. Healthy lifestyle w...

El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar los efectos del entrenamiento funcional en los indicadores de fuerza muscular, capacidad funcional y Calidad de Vida (CV) de personas con Lesión Medular Espinal (LME). La muestra se compuso de 5 individuos adultos con LME de ambos sexos, que se sometieron a 12 semanas de entrenamiento funcional dos veces a l...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the health public authorities to impose a lockdown as an epidemiological containment strategy. This study aimed to provide information regarding the impact of the mandatory confinement on the physical activity, eating disorders risk, sleep quality and well-being on a Spanish sample. An online survey that included th...

The European Commission has made notable efforts in recent years to serve those students who, within the European Higher Education Area, combine their studies with performance sport (student-athletes). In this sense, various projects have been developed that seek to meet the needs of this group, following the recommendations established by the Euro...

Balancing between two different commitments, sport and education, has been demonstrated as one of the significant challenges for dual career athletes, namely student athletes. Since EU guidelines on dual careers of athletes was published, a number of studies have been conducted on the topic of dual careers. One of the Erasmus+ Sport projects, Dual...

The purpose of study is to identify junior athletes’ challenges and barriers to manage their dual careers (i.e. combining sport and education or sport and work) and explore support systems in place for junior athletes. This is to better understand what junior athletes’ needs are and what the current practices are in that domain within sport organis...

The purpose of the present study is to identify, firstly, existing support services and systems offered to junior athletes and, secondly, national policies on dual career (i.e. combining sport and education or sport and work) in order to better understand current practice within sporting organisations, sport clubs and national governing bodies. Thi...

Este estudio piloto busca evaluar la validez de las mediciones de los indicadores de calidad del sueño en la Fitbit Flex® en su modo Normal (FF), un dispositivo comercial que permite la medición la actividad diaria y el sueño en el día a día, comparándolos registros con los del Actigraph GR3X®, (considerado el Gold Standard en la evaluación de la c...

Objectives: the cardiorespiratory fitness and the intensity of effort were analyzed during the recreational practice of slalom water skiing. Methodology: three moderately active water skiers with paraplegia participated. They performed an incremental test on an arm ergometer to determine their VO2peak and ventilatory thresholds and completed 3 sess...

El principal objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la influencia de diferentes formatos de juego reducido (JR) en la carga interna medida mediante el esfuerzo percibido (CI EP) declarado por los futbolistas, y en el rendimiento del salto horizontal (SH) y la capacidad de acelerar y esprintar. Diez futbolistas cadetes (sub-16) participaron en el est...

Melatonin has been examined in relatively few studies, especially in regards to its use in the sports field. There is still controversy as to how it affects the body in relation with physical activity. The purpose of this paper was to identify the effects of melatonin on the sports performance and sleep via a systematic review of articles from year...

Technical staff use friendly matches to get players to official matches in the proper performance physical shape during the pre-season period to ensure an optimal physical conditioning during in-season. Purpose: The aims of this study were: a) to describe the perceived exertion of soccer players in the pre-season and in-season periods; and b) to an...