Effect of Exercise on Athletes Performing in Fencing Uniforms: Methodology and Preliminary Results of the Use of Infrared Thermography to Detect the Thermal Behaviour of Fencers

Giulia Lamberti,Fabio Fantozzi,Giacomo Salvadori,Francesco Leccese

doi:10.3390/app10093296

Abstract

In recent times, infrared thermography has been often applied to sport science, in order to evaluate athletes’ performance in relation to their thermal behaviour. As there is a lack of studies for the sport of fencing, this paper aims to provide preliminary results showing the thermal behaviour of fencers of different competitive level and to provide a methodology for its assessment. In particular, thermal images were acquired before, during and after the training, as well as the metabolic rate and the rate of perceived exertion, for eight fencers with different competitive levels (international/national/veteran). Results showed that in moderate environments there was any correlation between the environmental parameters and temperature trend on athletes’ bodies, while competitive level and thermal behaviour were connected. The presence of thermal asymmetries was also detected. In general, from these preliminary results, professional athletes presented the same temperature trend. Therefore, further studies should be carried out in order to investigate these findings on a larger sample of elite athletes, as their thermal response may be important for improving their performance.

Highlights

In recent times, infrared thermography (IRT) has been frequently applied to the human body, in order to detect skin temperature, as it is a non-invasive method that is not influenced by the presence of probes, which may modify the values of temperature through conduction or radiation [1]
An increasing number of studies concerning the use of IRT in sport science can be detected
It is shown how IRT can be useful for assessing the thermal response of the athletes during training and the possible implications on their performance

Summary

Introduction

In recent times, infrared thermography (IRT) has been frequently applied to the human body, in order to detect skin temperature, as it is a non-invasive method that is not influenced by the presence of probes, which may modify the values of temperature through conduction or radiation [1]. The first thermal images applied to biomedical sciences are reported in the period between 1959 and. Several reviews regarding the use of infrared imaging in medicine [5,6,7] show the importance of this technique. IRT has been applied to sport science. The importance of detecting the skin temperature trend was evaluated by Clark and Mullan [9]. The number of publications regarding the use of IRT in sport science has rapidly increased, as a result of the

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