Highly-skilled diagnostic tools for peak athletic performance

But while the players enjoy the spotlight and compete for the Cup, other important participants remain in the background. Today, professional soccer players face enormous physical and mental strain at major tournaments. In addition, the game has gotten faster and more intense. For this reason, a whole team of coaches, sports physicians, physiotherapists, psychologists and nutritionists support the players. More than ever before, athletic success is the result of a collective effort.

The tournament is preceded by a month-long preparation phase, which aims to bring every single player to their personal best. This is done through meticulous performance diagnostics and measures taken based on the results of these diagnostics. One of the key points to effectively prepare a player is to optimize their physical fitness. Individual exercise and nutritional plans are designed to target specific muscles and excess fat tissue to improve strength, speed and endurance.

Achieving these goals requires detailed knowledge of a player’s body composition and how it changes throughout their training. Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) is a method routinely used in studies and sports medicine. Based on the respective gold standard, the seca mBCA is particularly suitable for determining the amount of muscle mass and adipose tissue as well as total body water.

The analysis also provides precise information to optimize the training and meal plan of the players. Thanks to the quick and easy implementation and non-invasive procedure, it can be used for regular follow-up checks and evaluations of the measures taken. Further useful insights are provided by Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis (BIVA), which gives valuable information regarding the current state of hydration, nutrition and fitness.

However, the seca mBCA is not only limited to the initial preparation. Injuries are common in professional sports and pose a serious threat to players’ careers. Early and extensive therapy and rehabilitation programs are designed to speed up recovery and to help the players regain their competitive ability.

Over the course of rehabilitation, professional and health interests can collide. While returning to an exercise routine can negatively impact the healing process and increase the risk of further damage, taking too long to recover can affect performance and a player’s future career. For this reason, the decision of when to continue training and when to compete again plays an important role. For this, the measuring data of the seca mBCA can provide important insights and facilitate an informed decision, too.

The device not only determines the proportion of individual body compartments, but can also be used for a segmental analysis of muscle mass in each limb. If there are previous findings taken from the time before the injury, the exact time of when the original state will be restored can be determined.

Athletic success today is based on a variety of factors and is closely linked to the availability of information. For this reason, comprehensive medical diagnostics and continuous monitoring plays a central role in the care of every professional athlete. The seca mBCA provides a valuable diagnostic tool that offers a wide range of rapidly available, updateable information, and contributes significantly to improving performance and achieving athletic success.

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