Resources

Online resources relevant to sport and exercise medicine

There is no point in re-inventing the wheel. If you need resources, make use of what is available – at least as a starting point. The links below will direct you to some useful resources.

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Some of the sites listed above are more relevant than others, but all will provide some useful information.

Some sites offer various resources, including PowerPoint presentations and video recordings of conferences and other resources.

  • The Obesity Society

    Various educational resources: most of these obviously relate to obesity, but there are presentations on metabolism and energy balance.

Many Universities make some of their teaching materials and other resources available online. The following are only a few examples:

Online databases and search engines relevant to sport and exercise medicine

Databases and search engines that will find abstracts (and some full papers) include:

  • BioMedLib

    Biomedical publications search engine. Covers all of Medline

  • PubMed

    PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Includes over 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.

  • Google Scholar

    Search engine using all resources of Google. Remarkably effective.

  • Science Direct

    Offers more than a quarter of the world's scientific, medical and technical information online.

  • BioMed Central

    Publishes 250 peer-reviewed open access journals.

  • World Health Organisation

    Library and database of publications. Fully searchable.

  • nutritionandfoodsciences.org

    Formerly Nutritiongate. Abstracts database of over 500,000 abstracts, including material from serials, conference proceedings, theses, and reports.

  • SPORTDiscus

    Covers almost every sport-science publication there has ever been. If your institution doesn't have a subscription, access it on the Web for $US50 per month or $US10 per day, or purchase the CD-ROM version.

  • Web of Science

    From the Institute for Scientific Information. Has links to all articles citing a given article, and saves references directly into Endnote. Requires a subscription, and it doesn't index low-impact sport-science journals.

Online Journals relevant to sport and exercise medicine

Some Journals make some or all of their content freely available online, while others restrict access to paying subscribers. Some provide free access to papers when they are more than 12 months old. Free full journal content is available from:

Most of the following Journals offer some access to all content, including a full index, but others require a subscription or payment per article. Free full contents are available for some, while abstracts only are available for others. Most offer fully searchable archives.

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Professional organisations and associations in sports medicine, health and exercise science

Most associations are organised on a national basis, but some are global in their reach and membership. Membership of some of these organisations is open only to registered medical personnel, while others are open to allied professionals.

Some of these websites are not friendly towards non-members, but most of those listed below include substantial amounts of freely-available information.

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Looking for jobs

Many sites provide resources for those looking for a new job. These include some that just list jobs available, and others that provide guidance on issues like writing a letter of application, preparing an effective cv, etc. Some sites are specific to one country, but others are international. The following is not a complete listing, but may be helpful.

In addition to these sites, you should look at the web pages of the various professional associations listed elsewhere. On some of these sites, information on job opportunities is posted on the "members only" part of the site.

Sports Medicine on Social Media Sites

Twitter

Facebook

Links to sporting organisations

Most of these websites do not have much information specifically on sports medicine, but some do. All have details of the organisation and the rules of the sport, and usually also a large amount of current news and history as well as video, images, etc. All will also have anti-doping information and other relevant links.

  • International Olympic Committee

    Home page of the IOC. Enormous resources, including photo and video archive. Look at the "Documents link" for access to many historical references.

  • FIFA

    Home page of FIFA, governing body of football. Everything you need to know about football, and a lot more too. Injury prevention information is available at http://f-marc.com/11plus/home/

The following links will take you to the websites of the International Federations of most of the major international sports. These are an excellent starting point for sport-specific information, including rules and regulations, current news, the history of the sport, etc. If we have missed any, let us know.

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Some National Federations also have useful websites. Among these are:

Some countries also have national coaching associations that may have useful information on their websites.

Links to sports news

There are some excellent news websites covering sport, including most of the major television channels and newspapers. While some of these focus primarily on local (ie national) events, others take an international perspective: both may be useful, depending on what you are looking for.

Useful news sites include:

  • BBC Sport

    This has an international section in various languages as well as the domestic version. Even the domestic version provides a broad international coverage.

  • International Sports Press Association

    Extensive resources, including online magazine.

  • ESPN

    Claims to be the worldwide leader in sports, but the focus is on NFL, MLB, NBA, College Football, College Basketball scores. Little news from outside the US.

  • Sports Illustrated

    Also very American oriented – not only news on US sports like baseball, Nascar etc, but also "swimsuit" section!

  • Daily Telegraph

    Sports pages of the Daily Telegraph (UK). Good all round coverage.

  • CBC Sports

    Canadian sports news.

The national and international governing bodies of sport also provide a comprehensive news coverage, and often also have an archive of past news items that can be very useful when tracing the development of a story. You can access the International Federations of most of the major sports here. A large amount of current news and history as well as video, images, etc can be found on the following sites:

  • IOC

    Home page of the International Olympic Committee. Enormous resources, including photo and video archive. Look at the “Documents link” for access to many historical references.

  • FIFA

    Home page of FIFA, governing body of football. Everything you need to know about football

  • IAAF

    Home page of the IAAF, governing body of track and field athletics.

  • FINA

    FINA is the international governing body of swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming and open water swimming

Sports Medicine resources from the International Olympic Committee

The IOC Medical Commission has convened a number of Consensus Conferences to address key topics.

Consensus statements and related publications are available on the following topics:

ACSM position stands on relevant topics

Follow the links below to download PDF’s of these position stand papers or to access online full text.

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  • July 2011 Access here

    Quantity and Quality of Exercise for Developing and Maintaining Cardiorespiratory, Musculoskeletal, and Neuromotor Fitness in Apparently Healthy Adults: Guidance for Prescribing Exercise

  • December 2010 Access here

    Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes

  • July 2009 Access here

    Exercise and Physical Activity for Older Adults

  • March 2009 Access here

    Nutrition and Athletic Performance

  • March 2009 Access here

    Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults

  • February 2009 Access here

    Appropriate Physical Activity Intervention Strategies for Weight Loss and Prevention of Weight Regain for Adults

  • October 2007 Access here

    The Female Athlete Triad

  • May 2007 Access here

    Exercise and Acute Cardiovascular Events: Placing the Risks into Perspective

  • March 2007 Access here

    Exertional Heat Illness during Training and Competition

  • February 2007 Access here

    Exercise and Fluid Replacement.

  • November 2006 Access here

    Prevention of Cold Injuries during Exercise

  • November 2004 Access here

    Physical Activity & Bone Health

  • March 2004 Access here

    Exercise & Hypertension

  • March 2002 Access here

    Automated External Defibrillators in Health/Fitness Facilities

  • June 1998 Access here

    Joint Statement: Recommendations for Cardiovascular Screening, Staffing, and Emergency Policies at Health/Fitness Facilities

  • June 1996 Access here

    The Use of Blood Doping as an Ergogenic Aid

  • October 1996 Access here

    Weight Loss in Wrestlers

  • March 1994 Access here

    Exercise for Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

  • May 1987 Access here

    The Use of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids in Sports

Sports and other images

We all need images to illustrate presentations and other materials, but it can be hard to find the right image. Even when we can find the picture we need, we must be aware of the copyright laws that protect the rights of whoever owns the image. The sites listed below all provide access to a range of images: some are free but others are protected. You must be aware of this.

  • Google Images

    This is a good, searchable database of images on the web, but the site often does not indicate whether images found are subject to copyright restrictions or not.

The US Government makes a large number of high quality images on a wide range of topics freely available. Most of these images and graphics are available for use in the public domain, and they may be used and reproduced without permission or fee. However, some images may be protected by license. We strongly recommend you thoroughly read the disclaimers on each site before use.

The following are links to other image libraries from the United States Federal Government Photo Repositories. These cover a very wide range of topics, offering access to high quality images in many different categories. Many are irrelevant, but somewhere here you can probably find the image you need.

Many companies offer high quality professional images for sale, but the cost is often prohibitive. Many websites offer downloadable images at no cost, but the quality is variable. There are some exceptions, though, that make high quality images available at no cost. Remember that images may be subject to copyright and it is your responsibility to ensure that you have the relevant permissions.

The following sites offer free images for non-commercial users. Some are better than others and most of the sites will feature pop-ups and other annoying distractions.

Anti-Doping and supplement contamination issues

Anyone working with athletes who are liable to testing for prohibited substances under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code must be aware of the possibility that some of the athletes they work with are using prohibited substances. In some cases, this may be a momentary aberration, but in others it can be a sophisticated and systematic doping program. There are also potential problems arising from the inadvertent use of dietary supplements that contain prohibited substances that are not listed on the product label. Strict liability means that ignorance is not an acceptable excuse.

To access the WADA home page, with extensive resources, click here.

To see a copy of the current WADA Prohibited list, click here.

The following websites contain much useful additional material:

  • World Anti-Doping Agency

    Essential site for the definitive list of prohibited substances and other resources.

  • US Anti-Doping Agency

    Many useful resources for athletes and professionals, including 32 page booklet on nutrition for athletes.

  • UK Anti-Doping

    Website of the UK Sport Education Program for Drug-Free Sport. Extensive range of resources

  • Australian Institute of Sport

    This contains a substantial number of sports nutrition and other sports science resources.

  • Dutch Anti-Doping Authority

    Many excellent resources, including a database of low risk supplements.

  • German Anti-Doping Agency

    Includes the "Cologne List" of supplements with “minimum doping risk” as well as many other resources.

The best place to direct athletes to is usually the athlete's national anti-doping agency. Many already have information on their websites about supplements.

Some examples in addition to those listed above are:

Numerous published reports have shown that some otherwise harmless dietary supplements contain steroids and stimulants, perhaps as a result of cross-contamination in the manufacturing, processing and distribution processes. There is also evidence of deliberate adulteration to enhance the efficacy of products that would otherwise be ineffective. Some reports suggest that as many as 15-20% of supplements on sale in some sports nutrition outlets may contain prohibited steroids.

Several organisations are attempting to find a solution to this problem, and those who advise athletes on nutrition must be aware of the need to find a constructive solution. Telling athletes not to use supplements does not work: they will just ask someone else.

See the Informed Sport website for some discussion of these issues.

Information on dietary supplements

The US FDA Web Pages are usually a good starting point for dietary supplement information. Several different parts of the site contain relevant information, including the following:

Other Federal Government Links:

The following websites are also good sources of information:

Information on legislation can be found at:

  • EFSA

    The European Food Safety Authority. Large amount of supporting information.

  • DSHEA

    The 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act of 1994

  • Harvard assignment

    A review of US supplements legislation including the 1994 DSHEA and subsequent developments

Relevant industry or commercial websites include the following:

Information for travelling athletes and teams (and travelling doctors too!)

International travel for training and competition is part of the normal life of many athletes. Travel is rewarding, but brings some challenges. Managing these challenges is essential to maximise the rewards and minimise the risks.

General Travel advice

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government provides extensive advice on a very wide range of topics for most destinations around the world. The site is updated daily and includes terrorist warnings, health and safety issues, money, etc and even includes a specific section on travel for sporting events.

Weather and environmental conditions at destination

There are many excellent sites providing both short and long term weather forecasts as well as weather histories for most cities in the world. Some of these will provide average weather conditions for any date of the year as well as the historical extremes.

Travel fatigue and jet lag

Jet lag occurs when the body clock is disrupted by crossing a number of time zones in a short space of time. The symptoms can include fatigue, disorientation and an inability to sleep.

For a recent review paper on jet lag and sport published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, click here.

Environmental challenges

Competitions often take place at environmental extremes, and athletes need to be aware of issues related to competitions in the heat, cold or at altitude. The following sites offer some useful advice and resources.

  • Zunis Foundation

    The stated goal of the Zunis Foundation is to make sports safer and more enjoyable, and the Zunis Foundation supports research into sports-related health issues, with a focus is on exercise-related heat illness, with special emphasis on studies of weather patterns which may promote illness. Extensive resources on this site, but a somewhat odd mixture of information. You could spend days browsing here.

  • BUPA

    Information and advice about altitude sickness from BUPA

For a review on acute mountain sickness from the Journal of Travel Medicine, click here.

Health issues

Anyone planning international travel should be fully informed about the potential health hazards of the countries they are travelling to and learn how to minimise any risk to health. This is especially true for athletes and teams who travel for training and competition – minor infectious illnesses can seriously disrupt a training camp and prevent participation in competitions. Forward planning, appropriate preventive measures and careful precautions are essential to reduce the risks.

  • http://www.who.int/ith/en/

    World Health Organisation report that provides information on the main health risks for travellers.

  • UK Government travel advice

    Regularly updated alerts on disease outbreaks all over the world, together with advice for travellers about staying safe.

  • http://masta-travel-health.com

    Commercial site offering (for a small fee) customised health travel advice.

  • CDC Travellers’ Health

    Website of the US Centers for Disease Control. Enormous resources as you would expect from the US Govt, including travel alerts, travel-related diseases, country-specific advice, etc.

The Journal of Travel Medicine offers much useful information. Full content from 1994 is free.