Shoulder biomechanics, misuse of power in sports biomechanics, and more markerless motion capture solutions

Steven Hirsch -

🦾 Biomechanics, motor control, and (re)training paper recommendations

Rotation Sequence as an important factor in shoulder kinematics

Rotation sequence as an important factor in shoulder kinematics - PubMed
Before glenohumeral three-dimension experiments the choice of the rotation sequence should be made in agreement with the no-gimbal lock incidence and amplitude interpretability of the performed movements.
PubMedMiroslav Senk

I've been reading a lot of shoulder biomechanics-related research for work recently and this was one of the papers I stumbled across. Always good to review how some of our decisions regarding how to compute joint angles can impact subsequent results!

Misuse of "Power" and Other Mechanical Terms in Sport and Exercise Science Research.

Misuse of “Power” and Other Mechanical Terms in Sport and Exercise Science Research - PubMed
Despite the Système International d’Unitès (SI) that was published in 1960, there continues to be widespread misuse of the terms and nomenclature of mechanics in descriptions of exercise performance. Misuse applies principally to failure to distinguish between mass and weight, velocity and speed, an…
PubMedEdward M Winter

Sports science research has not always been as rigorous as it should be with its vocabulary. This paper does a good job outlining how standard terms have been misapplied in the literature and practice, as well as how to use them correctly.

Loss of complexity and aging: potential applications of fractals and chaos theory to senescence

Loss of ‘complexity’ and aging. Potential applications of fractals and chaos theory to senescence - PubMed
The concept of “complexity,” derived from the field of nonlinear dynamics, can be adapted to measure the output of physiologic processes that generate highly variable fluctuations resembling “chaos.” We review data suggesting that physiologic aging is associated with a generalized loss of such compl…
PubMedL A Lipsitz

A classic paper outlining the Loss of Complexity Hypothesis, which applies fractal mathematics to understanding physiological signals. Many of these ideas have also been adapted in other fields under the broad umbrella of Kinesiology, such as biomechanics and motor learning.

🤖 Statistics and machine learning paper recommendations

Pose2Sim

GitHub - perfanalytics/pose2sim: Markerless kinematics, from OpenPose to OpenSim
Markerless kinematics, from OpenPose to OpenSim. Contribute to perfanalytics/pose2sim development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHubperfanalytics

Pose2Sim is another interesting open-source computer vision pipeline allowing you to do biomechanics with minimal equipment. As outlined in their GitHub repo, they triangulate outputs from OpenPose to create 3D keypoints, which are then fed through OpenSim for further processing.

Critical appraisal of artificial intelligence-based prediction models for cardiovascular disease

Critical appraisal of artificial intelligence-based prediction models for cardiovascular disease - PubMed
The medical field has seen a rapid increase in the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction models. With the introduction of such AI-based prediction model tools and software in cardiovascular patient care, the cardiovascular researcher and healthcare professional are challenged…
PubMedMaarten van Smeden

Although the paper is based around cardiovascular disease, almost all of these questions directly apply to machine learning models in biomechanics and other applied practices in strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, and general exercise.

Ten common statistical mistakes to watch out for when writing or reviewing a manuscript

Ten common statistical mistakes to watch out for when writing or reviewing a manuscript
Inspired by broader efforts to make the conclusions of scientific research more robust, we have compiled a list of some of the most common statistical mistakes that appear in the scientific literature. The mistakes have their origins in ineffective experimental ...
PubMed Central (PMC)Tamar R Makin

No matter what level your statistics training is, reviewing some of these fundamentals is always a great refresher!

🎙 Podcast recommendation

This is a pretty long podcast, but from a pure business perspective, it was really interesting to learn about the origins of Amazon and how it became the massive company it is today.

🗣 Quote of the month

"We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."

- David Goggins