SIA Academy Annual Program: Medical Examination
In the SIA Academy annual program, a medical examination is performed for all academy players at the at the start of programming.
The medical examination at SIA Academy consists of several medical tests such as a blood test, electrocardiogram, gas stress test and finally a bone densitometry, also known as a DEXA test.
What does the blood test consist of?
The medical examination begins with a basic blood test to check the hematological parameters. In the result of the analysis we will be able to see that there is no alteration of the immune system, such as anemia or vitamin deficiency that may be detrimental to the volume of training to be high performance.
What data do we obtain with an electrocardiogram?
Part of the medical examination is to perform an electrocardiogram at rest, a simple process that lasts between 3-4 minutes to recognize the heart rhythm of each player.
It consists of measuring the electrical activity of the heart to record that the heart is healthy or if it has any abnormality and can be detected in time. A test that serves to complement the gas stress tests.
Stress test with gases in soccer players
The stress tests with gas analyzer are useful for several things:
1. From the medical point of view it is important to see that the cardiovascular system is working properly and in the case that it is not, to be able to diagnose cardiac alterations of the athlete such as ischemic heart disease, arrhythmias and rhythm disturbances, or to be able to see if there are congenital malformations that may constitute a risk for our athlete.
2. From the sporting point of view, it will indicate the performance parameters of our players, and from this, we can see what is their fitness for their age and position, and better prescribe and individualize training to improve their endurance, since without objective data we can not obtain relevant information for our players.
These tests are carried out at the Jaime I Clinic in Catarroja.
DEXA test on a soccer player
In the medical examination at SIA Academy, we combine with DEXA to measure the complete body composition where we obtain objective information. Being a more reliable method, we can obtain more accurate data on the weight of the athlete in terms of percentages of muscle mass, fat mass, bone mass and residual mass, both in percentages and kilograms.
The DEXA method also allows us to see the difference between the upper and lower body, and between the right and left side of the player’s body.
What do we look for with this DEXA test at SIA Academy?
At SIA Academy we seek to obtain complete information on the player’s body composition, how much difference they may have from one leg to another with respect to muscle mass, a very important starting point to avoid the risk of injury and do individualized work.
In this way we make sure that the players are in optimal conditions to start the annual program of the academy without problems, as well as to have complete information to prescribe individualized training of resistance, strength, in general. We can also look for the player’s own nutrition thanks to the DEXA results we have obtained.
