SIRC articles provide evidence-based and actionable insights from sport researchers, athletes, coaches, sport organizations and thought leaders to advance sport in Canada.
Concussions and Confidence: Why Mental Readiness Matters in Recovery
For most of her career, Jen Kish was known as one of the best and most fearless female players in rugby sevens. She captained Canada’s women’s team to an Olympic bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. And, she also endured more than 30 concussions with only five of them formally diagnosed. “Your brain health…
Once considered a fringe activity, weight training has grown in popularity in the last 20 years due to its benefits for improving health, physical fitness, and performance. Weight training is often included in high school physical education classes and promoted...
Parents who dream of their children becoming professional athletes, and coaches who believe that single-minded dedication is the only way to reach the top of their sport, have contributed to an increase in early sport specialization. However, there are many...
Current views on recovery Recent research by Nash and Sproule (2018) asked coaches for their views on recovery in training. While recovery was widely understood as crucially important, results revealed that few coaches think about psychological and cognitive recovery with...
SIRC’s Athlete Perspective series provides insight and recommendations on key issues from an athlete’s perspective. The collection of blogs and SIRCuit articles profiles Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes and taps into their lived experience. Success isn’t accomplished alone. It takes...
Endurance athletes need to persevere through pain in training and competition. According to Kent University’s Samuele Marcora “our mind is what dictates our physical limits”. Exhaustion is not caused by muscle failure, but by the conscious decision to disengage from...
Periodization is a systematic approach to training that involves varying training variables, like volume and intensity, over time. The objective of this planning is for the athlete to reach his or her peak at a specific, pre-determined time, while optimizing...
Moisture-wicking clothes act to keep athletes cool and dry. Because exercising in the heat can have a severe impact on physical fatigue, companies promote their moisture-wicking products as the difference-maker in these conditions. However, there has yet to be an...
Core strength and stability training is performed by most if not all competitive athletes these days. In fact it is one of the few training forms that is effective for all sport disciplines. The core is central to all athletic...
Perfecting a good workout routine that balances aerobic, anaerobic and strength training is a great goal for all around fitness. However, sometimes your body settles into a rhythm and fewer gains are seen. Changing up your routine and incorporating different...
With the ever increasing popularity of Crossfit, obstacle course racing (Spartan, Warrior Dash and mud runs) and a few great marketing campaigns – check out #liftlikeagirl and This Girl Can – women are heading to their local gym and hitting...
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