Norikazu Hirose

Waseda University | Sōdai · Faculty of Sport Sciences

Single-leg landing (SLL) stability deficits are common dysfunctions after lateral ankle sprain (LAS), and are associated with reinjury and needs to be addressed. SLL stability deficits could be associated with impact absorption ability. Thus, we evaluated these relationships. We recruited 46 patients with chronic ankle instability (CAI) and 64 cont...

This crossover trial aimed to investigate whether additional loading of unilateral Nordic hamstring exercise on a sloped platform would increase the biceps femoris long head electromyographic activity. Participants were randomly allocated to unilateral Nordic hamstring exercise under three conditions: bodyweight only (BW) or BW with an added weight...

The change-of-direction speed is an essential physical component in basketball. This study aimed to reveal the relationship between change-of-direction kinematics and the related motor abilities in basketball players. Motor abilities, including squat, sprint speed, vertical jump, and horizontal jump, were measured in 14 male collegiate basketball p...

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of an experimental short-time warm-up consisting of a small number of intermittent high-intensity sprints on explosive muscle strength performance in soccer players and to identify recovery times after performing the sprints. Furthermore, we evaluated the reliability of a smartphone app in jumping...

# Background Previous studies have shown that performing the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) with different board slope angles can affect hamstring activation. However, changes in muscle length with different board slopes can alter joint angles leading to the moment arm (MA) at the knee changing during the NHE. # Purpose This study aimed to inve...

Objectives To examine the incidence and survival rates of sudden cardiac arrest that were documented during school organized sports in Japan. Design Retrospective cohort study. Methods Insurance claim data of cardiac events (sudden cardiac death and sudden cardiac arrest with resultant disabilities) that occurred during Japanese high school organ...

The neuromuscular activity in the hamstring and quadriceps muscles is vital for rapid force control during athletic movements. This study aimed to investigate the recruitment properties of the corticospinal pathway of the biceps femoris long head (BFlh) and rectus femoris (RF) muscles. Thirty-two male subjects were participated in this study. Corti...

Introduction Self-massage using a foam roller (foam rolling) has been used to improve joint range of motion (ROM). However, the effect of foam rolling on the morphology of a targeted muscle, tendon, and muscle-tendon unit (MTU) has not been fully clarified. This study aimed to investigate extensibility changes in the gastrocnemius muscle (GM), MTU,...

Context: This study aimed to examine the differences in electromyographic (EMG) activity of the biceps femoris long head (BFlh) and semitendinosus (ST) muscles, break-point angle (BPA), and the angle at peak BFlh EMG activity between bilateral and unilateral Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) on a sloped platform. Design: This study was designed as...

Hamstring strain often occurs when an opponent unanticipatedly perturbs an athlete’s movements. We examined the neuromuscular responses of hamstring and trunk muscles during unanticipated trunk perturbations in athletes with and without a history of hamstring strain injury. Male college athletes (11 with a history of a unilateral hamstring injury a...

Background Trunk movement is considered to be involved in lower extremity injuries. Hamstring strain injuries often occur when movements are unanticipatedly perturbed by the opponents. Objective To examine the neuromuscular responses of the hamstring and trunk muscles during unanticipated trunk perturbations in the athletes with and without a hist...

Purpose: To examine differences in resistance exercise-induced hormonal responses among young athletes according to their maturity levels. Materials and methods: A total of 12 collegiate and 32 junior high school male athletes were enrolled. The junior high school participants were divided into pre-peak height velocity (PHV) and post-PHV groups,...

Purpose: To examine differences in resistance exercise-induced hormonal responses among young athletes according to their maturity levels. Materials and methods: A total of 12 collegiate and 32 junior high school male athletes were enrolled. The junior high school participants were divided into pre-peak height velocity (PHV) and post-PHV groups, ac...

Limited literature has investigated epidemiology of sports-related fatalities during high school organizes sports in Japan. Therefore, the purposes of this study are to determine the frequency and incidence rate of sports-related fatalities in Japanese high schools by cause and sports, and to examine the type of on-site first responder. Insurance c...

An electromyographic (EMG) activity in the hamstring during NHE on incline slope planform with a variation of the knee and hip angle at isometric contraction to identify a preferable exercise for recruiting hamstring activity.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of the number of high-acceleration movements on muscle damage and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in basketball games. Methods: Twenty-one male collegiate basketball players (mean age, 20.0 [1.0] y) were included. A triaxial accelerometer was used to measure acceleration in basketball-simulated scrimmages....

The ideal timing to implement anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention programs with respect to maturation is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an injury prevention program on knee mechanics in early-, late-, and post-pubertal females. In the study, 178 adolescent female basketball players were assigned to six...

Objectives This study aimed to clarify the kinematic, kinetic characteristics associated with lateral ankle sprain. Design A 16-month prospective cohort study. Setting Laboratory Participants A total of 179 college athletes. Main Outcome measures Joint kinematics, moment during single-leg landing tasks, and ankle laxity were measured. The atten...

The semitendinosus (ST) muscle is primarily used during Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE), which is often prescribed for preventing hamstring injury, though the biceps femoris long head (BFlh) muscle that is more susceptible to injuries. Thus, this study aimed to identify the modulation of BFlh muscle activity with different knee flexion angles durin...

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the NHE with an increased lower leg slope angle would enhance hamstring EMG activity in the final phase of the descend. The hamstring EMG activity was measured, the biceps femoris long head (BFlh) and the semitendinosus (ST). Fifteen male volunteers participated in this study. Subjects performed a pr...

Introduction ; Maintaining flexibility, often defined as range of motion (ROM), is important. Recently, self-massage using a foam roller (FR) has been used in clinical and/or sports settings to effectively and immediately improve ROM. Many studies have found significant increases in ROM following the FR intervention; however, the mechanism of the e...

This study aimed to investigate the influence of the task type on the relative electromyography (EMG) activity of biceps femoris long head (BFlh) to semitendinosus (ST) muscles, and of proximal to distal regions during isometric leg-curl (LC) and hip-extension (HE). Twenty male volunteers performed isometric LC with the knee flexed to 30° (LC30) an...

Although a 3- to 7-min re-warm up (RW) elicits performance and physiological benefits after half-time (HT), a time-efficient and feasible RW protocol is required for the use of an RW in the athletic setting. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a 1-min RW at high-intensity on the performance and physiological responses during the Loughboro...

Purpose: Lateral ankle sprain (LAS) in childhood can result in lateral malleolus avulsion fractures; additionally, bone nonunion may occur. Physical maturity relates to the development of bone morphology and physical functionality. It is unknown how changes in physical functionality attributable to physical maturity affect young soccer players wit...

In this study, we investigated differences in electromyographic activity in the biceps femoris long head (BFl), semitendinosus, and semimembranosus muscles during 45° hip extension with different knee angles during eccentric, concentric, and isometric hip 0°, and isometric hip 45° conditions with non-external resistance and 5-kg load. Twenty-two ma...

Background: Little is known about the activity of the abdominal internal oblique (IO) and lumbar multifidus (LM) muscles relative to kinetic chain exercises performed in a standing position. Hypothesis/purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the activity of the IO and the LM muscles during weight-bearing exercises. The authors hypothe...

Objective This study aimed to compare the effect of different density foam rollers on range of motion recovery. Method Ten active men completed two, 3-day trials in random order. During the experimental trials, all participants performed 2 min of foam rolling (FR) using a medium-density (medium trial) or hard-density (hard trial) foam roller on th...

This study compared anthropometric characteristics and athletic performance among young Japanese elite basketball players, of the same age category, with various or different levels of maturity and testosterone. The participants were assigned to the Before peak height velocity (PHV) group and the After PHV group based on differences between the est...

Koyama, T, Rikukawa, A, Nagano, Y, Sasaki, S, Ichikawa, H, and Hirose, N. Acceleration profile of high-intensity movements in basketball games. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2020-This study aimed to elucidate movements that require greater acceleration during basketball games, their occurrence frequency, and compare acceleration components. E...

Purpose: Proprioceptive function of the lower limbs deteriorates in patients following total hip arthroplasty. Patients show poor balance and rely more on visual information than proprioceptive information. Plantar vibration stimuli can mechanically enhance somatosensory input from the plantar cutaneous mechanoreceptors, thereby improving static ba...

Previous studies suggest that marathon running induces lower extremity muscle damage. This study aimed to examine inter-and intramuscular differences in hamstring muscle damage after a marathon using transverse relaxation time (T 2)-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI). 20 healthy collegiate marathon runners (15 males) were recruited for this s...

Context: Several studies have reported that self-massage using a foam roller (FR) increased joint range of motion (ROM) immediately. However, the mechanism of increasing ROM by the FR intervention has not been elucidated. Objective: To clarify the mechanism by investigating properties and morphological changes of muscles targeted by the FR inter...

This study investigated the effect of high-intensity cycling re-warm up (RW) within a very short time-frame on the subsequent intermittent sprint performance. Twelve active males completed three trials in random order: control (CON); 3-min RW at 30% of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) (RW30); and 1-min RW at 90% of VO2max (RW90). During the experimen...

Ankle sprains are the most prevalent injuries, and elevated fear avoidance beliefs after ankle sprain episodes could inhibit athletic performance and contribute to residual symptoms, such as functional and/or mechanical instability. However, it remains unclear how fear avoidance beliefs differ according to conditions of posttraumatic sequelae. The...

Objective: Joint torque differences between healthy and rehabilitated legs are often measured as a clinical index of recovery from muscle strain injury. Unfortunately, it should be noted that this is a questionable evaluation measure of the muscle after injury because it is a composite value including related cooperating muscles. Meanwhile, the us...

This study aimed to examine longitudinal age-related changes in muscle morphology and jump and sprint performances of youth athletes. The subjects of this longitudinal study were 41 youth male basketball players who were assigned to late, mid, and early groups based on differences regarding the estimated age at peak height velocity. The vastus medi...

In this study, we aimed to clarify the characteristics of neuromuscular function, kinetics, and kinematics of the lower extremity during sprinting in track and field athletes with a history of strain injury. Ten male college sprinters with a history of unilateral hamstring injury performed maximum effort sprint on an athletic track. The electromyog...

Itoh, R and Hirose, N. Relationship among biological maturation, physical characteristics, and motor abilities in youth elite soccer players. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2019-Studies investigating skeletal maturity and motor abilities in youth Asian elite soccer players are lacking. We aimed to investigate the cross-sectional relationship a...

Background Throwing injuries of the shoulder and elbow are common among youth baseball players. Hypothesis A prevention program will reduce the incidence of throwing injuries of the shoulder and elbow by 50% among youth baseball players. Study Design Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1. Methods The authors block randomized 16 youth...

Yoshimura, A, Inami, T, Schleip, R, Mineta, S, Shudo, K, and Hirose, N. Effects of self-myofascial release using a foam roller on range of motion and morphological changes in muscle: a crossover study. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2019-Self-myofascial release using a foam roller (FR) is effective in improving range of motion (ROM) in at leas...

Objective To assess the discriminability as well as the reliability, and internal consistency of the Identification of Functional Ankle Instability questionnaire translated into Japanese (IdFAI-J). Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Collegiate athletic training/sports medicine clinic. Participants Twenty bilingual and sixty-five collegiate at...

Yanaoka, T, Hamada, Y, Kashiwabara, K, Kurata, K, Yamamoto, R, Miyashita, M, and Hirose, N. Very-short-duration, low-intensity half-time re–warm up increases subsequent intermittent sprint performance. J Strength Cond Res 32(11): 3258–3266, 2018—This study investigated the effect of very-short-duration, low-intensity half-time re–warm up (RW) on su...

Japanese Journal of Clinical Sports Medicine 26(3):355-362 (in Japanese) Clarification of the characteristics of inciting events leading to concussion is important to develop preventive measures of recurrent concussion in the rugby union. The purpose of this study was to clarify situations in which concussion occurred in collegiate rugby union play...

Hirose, N and Tsuruike, M. Differences in the electromyographic activity of the hamstring, gluteus maximus, and erector spinae muscles in a variety of kinetic changes. J Strength Cond Res 32(12): 3366-3372, 2018-This study aimed to clarify the differences in the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the semitendinosus (ST), semimembranosus (SM), bice...

Background: The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic (KJOC) score has been used to describe various parameters of throwing shoulder and elbow function for the return to play after a long period of rehabilitation, such as after ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction. No study has yet to identify how scapular dyskinesis (SD) in baseball players affects...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of different durations of half-time re-warm up (RW) on intermittent sprint performance. Using a randomized crossover design, 13 healthy men performed three trials, which consisted of two, 40-min intermittent exercises separated by a 15-min half-time. Half-time interventions were 15 min...

Background: The Tanner-Whitehouse radius-ulna-short bone protocol (TW2 RUS) for the assessment of skeletal age (SA) is widely used to estimate the biological (skeletal) maturity status of children and adolescents. The scale for converting TW RUS ratings to an SA has been revised (TW3 RUS) and has implications for studies of youth athletes in age-g...

An Online First version of this article was made available online at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40279-017-0799-7 on 29 October 2017. Errors were subsequently identified in the article, and the following corrections should be noted.

This study identified core muscle activities were modulated in upper extremity rhythmical exercise during a standing position. Sixteen active male collegiate subjects participated in this study. The subjects performed rhythmical exercises using their dominant arm in a standing position with four different foot stances: double‐leg stance (DS), 2) ip...

Background: Concussion causes acute, short-term brain dysfunctions. However, the impact of repetitive concussion history on brain function remains unclear. Objectives: The present study examined the effect of a history of multiple concussions on the cognitive functions and dynamic cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulation in collegiate rugby football pl...

Background: Programs to prevent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in female basketball players are scarce. Also, ACL injury prevention training that focuses on hip joint function has not been reported. Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of a hip-focused ACL injury prevention program in female basketball players. Study design: Coho...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine whether preventive rehabilitation improves the asymmetry between the involved side and the uninvolved side of single-leg landing, dynamic balance, and lower limb muscular strength of young female athletes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). [Subjects and Methods] The subjects we...

Background This study examines age-related changes in the quadriceps femoris (QF), subdivided into the vastus medialis oblique (VMO), vastus medialis (VM), rectus femoris (RF), vastus intermedius (VI) and vastus lateralis (VL) in basketball players. Subjects Seventy male basketball players were divided into four groups according to age (12–13, 14–...

Background: Youth baseball players are at high risk for elbow injuries, which can lead to future functional disability. Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a prevention program to lower the risk of medial elbow injury in these athletes. Study design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods: Youth baseball players, 8 to 11 years old...

Background: There is a large amount of information regarding risk factors for fifth metatarsal stress fractures; however, there are few studies involving large numbers of subjects. This study aimed to compare the static foot alignment and distribution of foot pressure of athletes with and without a history of fifth metatarsal stress fractures. Me...

Introduction Center of pressure (COP) is a sudden displacement at the time of a lateral ankle sprain (LAS). It has been suggested that the distribution of plantar pressure and the quantity of COP displacement are important for assessing the risk of LAS. Therefore, we evaluated the plantar pressure during a single-leg balance test with eyes closed (...

Background There is little information about the effect of hamstrings training on hip and knee joint function, morphology of each hamstring muscle, and the rate of injury incidence. Objective To clarify the effect of hamstrings training on H:Q strength ratio in hip and knee joint, the morphological adaptations of each hamstring muscle, and the rat...

Background Previous meta-analyses have revealed that effective programs to prevent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in female basketball players have not been established. Objective To investigate the effects of an ACL injury prevention program focused on improving hip joint function in female basketball players. Design Cohort study. Se...

Background No firm consensus has been established regarding the risk factors for stress fracture of the 5th metatarsal because of a lack of large-scale prospective studies. Objective The purpose of this study was to clarify the risk factors for a stress fracture of the 5th metatarsal. Design Cohort study. Setting Prospective study with well-trai...

Background: The risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is higher in female soccer players than in male soccer players. The most common reason for non-contact ACL injury has been found to be a cutting or stopping maneuver combined with deceleration and landing from a jump. In a previous study, there was no difference in the incidence of ACL...

This study aimed to investigate the in vivo kinematics of shear modulus of the lower leg muscles in patients with medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS). The study population included 46 limbs with MTSS and 40 healthy limbs. The shear modulus of the medial head of the gastrocnemius, lateral head of the gastrocnemius, soleus, peroneus longus and tibia...

The rearfoot motion during sports activities in patients with the medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) is unknown. This study aimed to investigate the difference in kinematics of the rearfoot in MTSS patients (eight male soccer players) and control participants (eight male soccer players) during a forward step. Sixteen male soccer players, includin...

The present study examined 2-year changes in anthropometric variables and motor abilities in elite male youth soccer players to identify potential talent identification indexes. This was a cross-sequential study examining two different age groups at two time points. Height, weight, 40-m sprint speed, muscular power (5-step bounding), and change of...

Purpose: To describe cross-sectional age differences in change-of-direction performance (CODp) in female football players and investigate the relationship between CODp and linear-sprint speed, muscle power, and body size. Methods: A sample of 135 well-trained female football players was divided into 8 age groups. Anthropometry (height, body mass...

The purpose of this study was to identify the period of the gait cycle during which the hamstring muscles were likely injured by estimating the magnitude of tensile force in each muscle during overground sprinting. We conducted three-dimensional motion analysis of 12 male athletes performing overground sprinting at their maximal speed and calculate...

No studies have identified the direct effect of changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) on cognitive function at rest and during exercise. In this study, we manipulated CBF using hypercapnic gas to examine whether an increase in CBF improves cognitive function during prolonged exercise. The speed and the accuracy of cognitive function were assessed us...

Background The purpose of this study was to compare the elastic properties and size of tendinous structures and muscle architecture for knee extensors and plantar flexors in boys and men. Methods Twenty-two early pubescent boys (9.6 – 12.7 yrs) and 23 young adult men (19.8 – 26.2 yrs) participated in this study. The maximal strain and thickness of...

The purpose of this study was to compare the morphological and mechanical properties of the human patellar tendon among elementary school children (pre-pubertal), junior high school students (pubertal), and adults. Twenty-one elementary school children, 18 junior high school students, and 22 adults participated in this study. The maximal strain, st...