The main aims of this systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression were to describe the effect of multidisciplinary neuromuscular and endurance interventions, including plyometric training, mixed strength and conditioning, HIIT basketball programs and repeated sprint training on youth basketball players considering age, competitive level, gender and the type of the intervention performed to explore a predictive model through a meta-regression analysis. A structured search was conducted following PRISMA guidelines and PICOS model in Medline (PubMed), Web of Science (WOS) and Cochrane databases. Groups of experiments were created according to neuromuscular power (vertical; NPV and horizontal; NPH) and endurance (E). Meta-analysis and sub-groups analysis were performed using a random effect model and pooled standardized mean differences (SMD). A random effects meta-regression was performed regressing SMD for the different sub-groups against percentage change for NPV and NPH. There was a significant positive overall effect of the multidisciplinary interventions on NPV, NPH and E. Sub-groups analysis indicate differences in the effects of the interventions on NPV and NPH considering age, gender, competitive level and the type of the intervention used. Considering the current data available, the meta-regression analysis suggests a good predictability of U-16 and plyometric training on jump performance. Besides, male and elite level youth basketball players had a good predictability on multidirectional speed and agility performance.

Purpose: To examine the acute effects of concurrent muscle power and sport-specific endurance exercises order on immunological stress responses, muscular-fitness, and rating-of-perceived-exertion (RPE) in highly trained youth male judo athletes. Methods: Twenty male participants randomly performed two concurrent training (CT) sessions; power-endurance and endurance-power. Measures of immune response (e.g., white blood cells), muscular-fitness (i.e., counter-movement-jump [CMJ]), RPE, blood-lactate, and -glucose were taken at different time-point (i.e., pre, mid, post, and post6h). Results: There were significant time*order interactions for white blood cells, lymphocytes, granulocytes, granulocyte-lymphocyte-ratio, and systemic-inflammation-index. Power-endurance resulted in significantly larger pre-to-post increases in white blood cells and lymphocytes while endurance-power resulted in significantly larger pre-to-post increases in the granulocyte-lymphocyte-ratio and systemic-inflammation-index. Likewise, significantly larger pre-to-post6h white blood cells and granulocytes increases were observed following power-endurance compared to endurance-power. Moreover, there was a significant time*order interaction for blood-glucose and -lactate. Following endurance-power, blood-lactate and -glucose increased from pre-to-mid but not from pre-to-post. Meanwhile, in power-endurance blood-lactate and -glucose increased from pre-to-post but not from pre-to-mid. A significant time*order interaction was observed for CMJ-force with larger pre-to-post decreases in endurance-power compared to power-endurance. Further, CMJ-power showed larger pre-to-mid performance decreases following power-endurance, compared to endurance-power. Regarding RPE, significant time*order interactions were noted with larger pre-to-mid values following endurance-power and larger pre-to-post values following power-endurance. Conclusion: CT induced acute and delayed order-dependent immune cell count alterations in highly trained youth male judo athletes. In general, power-endurance induced higher acute and delayed immunological stress responses compared to endurance-power. CMJ-force and RPE fluctuated during both CT sessions but went back to baseline 6 h post-exercise.

Understanding the process of adaptation remains a key challenge for strength and conditioning coaches to enhance basketball athletic performance. While physical performance improvements are often used to track progress, these changes originate from various molecular mechanisms, with DNA methylation potentially playing a pivotal role in training-induced adaptations. This study aimed to investigate genome-wide DNA methylation changes following one weekly 30-min Superset (SST) and Repeated Sprint Training (RST) over eight weeks, in youth basketball players. Sixty-two male youth basketball players (U-13 to U-18) completed pre- and post-intervention assessments of explosive strength, aerobic fitness, speed and agility, along with saliva sampling for DNA methylation analysis. Participants were randomized into SST or RST groups, completing 30-min weekly sessions over 8 weeks alongside regular basketball training. DNA methylation was profiled using the Illumina 930 K (EPIC v2) microarray. The SST and RST resulted in 112 and 308 differentially methylated positions (DMPs), respectively, from which 76% and 73% were hypomethylated. Enrichment analysis revealed multiple pathways in saliva-derived cells including: mTOR, PI3K-Akt and cAMP signalling for SST, and VEGFA, IGF receptor, BDNF, angiogenesis, vascular development, NF-κB, MAPK and PI3K-Akt signalling pathways for RST. The changes in DNA methylation following 30-min weekly SST and RST sessions over 8 weeks, together with enrichment analysis revealing distinct molecular pathways in saliva for each training intervention, provide preliminary evidence that different training modalities may elicit distinct epigenetic responses. These findings provide a descriptive characterization of salivary DNA methylation responses to SST and RST in youth basketball players and identify potential epigenetic signatures associated with different training stimuli.