Viagra at Altitude and Other Performance-Related Highlights of the ACSM 2006 Annual Meeting (American College of Sports Medicine‪)‬

Acute Strategies: Effects of ibuprofen, pre-tensing, pre-cooling, circadian rhythym, warm-ups, ice-cold recovery, bike fitting, stretching, post-activation potentiation, whole-body vibration, and massage. Altitude: Viagra for performance at high altitude; the live-high train-low mechanism debate; effects of adaptation to artificial altitude. Mechanisms: maximum effort is related to a critical fatigue level in muscle; hard training stimulates EPO; evidence that muscle pH limits intense exercise. Nutrition: training on low carbohydrate; galactose vs other carbs and caffeine; milk protein, amino acids and cherry juice for recovery; colostrum for training; vitamin C and fish oil for asthmatics; echinacea stimulates EPO; caffeine for team-sport and tennis performance; effects of mild hypohydration. Performance Genes: minor findings. Tests and Technology: using modeling to optimize cycling performance; soccer tests; mountain-bike suspensions. Training: big gains with respiratory-muscle, core-stability and high-resistance training; nothing new on overtraining. Reviewer's Comment: a balanced view of train-low compete-high on carbohydrate. KEYWORDS: elite athletes, ergogenic aids, nutrition, tests, training. The 53rd annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine was held this year in Denver, May 31 through June 3. There were nearly 3000 presentations on health, injury and performance aspects of physical activity and sport in multiple parallel sessions. So many people reported so much good research that I consider it an obligation and privilege to write this report. I have limited it to my own research interest of athletic performance. If your interest is health or injury, I strongly advise you to peruse the relevant abstracts. The book of abstracts was distributed only to attendees, but I explain below how you can access each section of the book as a PDF online.