Creatine monohydrate supplementation is widely used by athletes in high-intensity, power-based sports due to its ability to enhance short-term performance by increasing intramuscular phosphocreatine (PCr) stores, which aid in ATP resynthesis during intense muscle contractions. However, emerging evidence suggests that creatine monohydrate offers benefits beyond athletic performance. This narrative review explores the literature supporting the advantages of creatine supplementation in women, vegans, and clinical populations. In women, who typically have lower baseline intramuscular creatine levels, supplementation may help alleviate fatigue-related symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle, particularly during the early follicular and luteal phases. For vegans and vegetarians, who often have reduced creatine stores due to the absence of creatine-rich animal products in their diet, supplementation can improve both physical and cognitive performance while supporting adherence to plant-based diets. Additionally, creatine supplementation holds potential for various clinical populations. It may mitigate muscle wasting in conditions such as sarcopenia and cachexia, support neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s, improve exercise capacity in cardiovascular diseases, and enhance energy metabolism in chronic fatigue syndrome. Creatine may also aid recovery from traumatic brain injury by promoting brain energy metabolism and reducing neuronal damage. In conclusion, creatine monohydrate supplementation can enhance physical performance, cognitive function, and overall health in women, vegans, and clinical populations by addressing creatine deficiencies, improving energy metabolism, and supporting recovery from physical and neurological challenges. Most available evidence supports the effectiveness of creatine monohydrate, which should be considered the preferred form of creatine supplementation over other variants. Additionally, proper creatine dosing is essential to maximize benefits and minimize potential adverse effects that may arise from chronic ingestion of excessively high doses.

Background/Objectives: Universities serve as crucibles for molding future healthcare providers, instilling medical expertise and ethical frameworks crucial for their role as custodians of health. Yet, integrating anti-doping education into university curricula remains largely underexplored, particularly among future physicians. The aim of this research was to evaluate the students’ understanding of anti-doping within the bachelor’s degree in medicine in Mexico. Methods: Five hundred and forty-nine bachelor students in medicine (151 males, 351 females, and 7 participants identifying as non-binary) from six universities in Mexico filled out a validated questionnaire regarding general anti-doping knowledge. This questionnaire was an adapted form of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Play True Quiz and included 36 multiple-choice questions. The results were converted into a scale from 0 to 100 points to evaluate anti-doping knowledge. Results: Students scored 55.30 ± 9.08 points (range = 28–83 points). Fourteen questions indicated an error rate higher than 50% within the sample. The course had no impact on the scores achieved in the anti-doping knowledge questionnaire (p > 0.05). Students who engaged in sports demonstrated higher scores in anti-doping knowledge compared to those who did not participate in any type of exercise (56.10 ± 9.04 vs. 54.19 ± 9.10 points; p = 0.008). Conclusions: It was determined that the knowledge of essential anti-doping regulations and doping prevention strategies among bachelor’s degree medical students in Mexico was found to be suboptimal. Doping prevention should be included in the syllabus of the bachelor’s degree in medicine to help future doctors avoid professional errors, whether negligent or intentional.

HYROX© is a standardized fitness racing competition combining eight 1000 m runs with eight functional workout stations, placing demands on aerobic endurance, strength, and muscular endurance. Despite its rapid growth, performance analyses remain limited. To evaluate the seasonal evolution of elite HYROX performance standards across seven seasons (2018–2024) using the annual Top 50 PRO MEN performances, and to identify the race components contributing most to changes in overall performance. Data from the Top 50 PRO MEN performances in each season were obtained from the official HYROX database (n = 350). Performance data were selected independently within each season according to ranking position; across the dataset, 138 unique athletes were identified, of whom 46 appeared in more than one season and 92 appeared in a single season only. Therefore, the dataset reflects annual elite performance standards rather than repeated longitudinal measurements of the same individuals. Variables included total race time, cumulative running time, cumulative workout time, roxzone (transition) time, and segment splits. One- and two-way ANOVAs with Bonferroni corrections were applied. From 2018 to 2024, total race time decreased by 20.8% (−891.5 s, p < 0.001), with significant reductions in run + roxzone (−21.8%) and workout time (−19.2%) (p < 0.001). The largest time reductions were observed in Wall Balls (−34.6%) and Sled Pull (−29.3%). Among running segments, the greatest time reduction was observed in the final run (Run 8; −19.2%, −58.5 s, p < 0.001). Running split-time profiles became progressively more even despite persistent late-race decrements. Elite HYROX performance standards improved substantially across seasons, with reductions in total race time, running time, workout time, and roxzone time. These findings provide descriptive benchmarks for performance monitoring and competition planning in hybrid fitness racing.

Previous studies of HYROX have described its physiological demands and pacing, but the organization of race-segment performance and the existence of distinct performance profiles among high-performing athletes remain unclear. This retrospective observational study analyzed official results of 11,592 male HYROX Pro athletes (one performance per athlete; 143 events; 2018–2025). Event-related differences were accounted for by centering race-segment times within each event (venue × year). Segment contributions were quantified using partial correlations controlling for event, part–rest correlations, and an additive decomposition of between-athlete variance. In the fastest within-event quartile (n = 2847), K-means clustering was applied to level-independent residual segment profiles, and exploratory classification trees examined whether these profiles discriminated faster from slower athletes. All segments correlated with total race time (partial r = 0.55–0.78). Running plus Roxzone time and workout-station time each accounted for about half of the between-athlete variance; Wallballs, Sled Pull, and Roxzone were the largest single components, whereas mid-race running segments were most strongly associated with the rest of the race. Two reproducible profiles emerged, characterized by relatively faster workout stations or relatively faster running, with equivalent total times in the primary residual-profile analysis; given their low separation (silhouette = 0.18), they represent positions along a continuum rather than distinct athlete types. In exploratory analyses with training and test data fully separated, profiles discriminated poorly between faster and slower high performers (AUC ≈ 0.54). These findings provide a descriptive basis for Performance Architecture and Competitive Phenotypes in HYROX.

Doping remains a major threat to athlete health and sport integrity. Although anti-doping efforts have traditionally focused on athletes, increasing attention has turned to Athlete Support Personnel (ASP) due to their influence on athletes’ decisions, behaviors and involvement in anti-doping rule violations. This narrative review aimed to synthesize the existing literature on the role of ASP (including coaches, physicians, pharmacists, sport psychologists, nutritionists, physiotherapists, parents and other family members) in anti-doping, with particular attention to their influence on athletes’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, education and decision-making related to doping. Coaches, physicians, and pharmacists are among the ASP groups most frequently examined in the literature, although substantial knowledge gaps remain across all groups. Coaches shape motivational climates and ethical norms but often lack adequate understanding of anti-doping regulations and supplement risks. Physicians and pharmacists play key roles in medication management and Therapeutic Use Exemptions procedures, though incomplete regulatory knowledge may contribute to inadvertent violations. Nutritionists are central in preventing supplement-related doping, while research on sport psychologists and physiotherapists remains limited despite their preventive potential. Parents significantly shape athletes’ moral development and susceptibility to doping, acting as protective or risk factors depending on family dynamics. Overall, anti-doping education for ASP remains inconsistent. In conclusion, ASP plays an essential yet heterogeneous role in influencing doping-related behaviors. Strengthening role-specific and interdisciplinary anti-doping education, particularly within university programs and professional development, appears critical for enhancing ASP competence and promoting a sustainable culture of clean sport.

Background: Steel club training is a form of strength and conditioning exercise that involves swinging weighted clubs through circular and pendular movements, thereby imposing substantial rotational and multiplanar demands on the trunk. However, the core muscle activation patterns elicited by these exercises remain poorly characterized. Purpose: This study aimed to characterize global, muscle-specific, and side-to-side core muscle activation across a battery of steel club exercises and compare it with that of conventional plank variations. Methods: A within-subject experimental design was used in a single-session laboratory setting. Fourteen trained males (n = 14) performed ten steel club exercise conditions (comprising seven distinct movement patterns, with unilateral variations performed bilaterally) using 8 and 16 kg clubs and four isometric plank variations; data from n = 13 were available for the Shield Cast 16 kg condition and the omnibus ANOVA due to one excluded signal. Surface electromyography was bilaterally recorded from the rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique, and multifidus muscles and normalized to maximal voluntary contraction (% MVC). Repeated-measures ANOVA was used to assess global and muscle-specific differences across exercise conditions, and paired-samples t-tests were used to evaluate side-to-side differences. Results: Global core activation significantly differed across exercises (p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.798) and was generally greater during steel club exercises than during conventional planks. The Lateral Pendulum to Shoulder Cast (54.77 ± 9.32% MVC), Gamma Cast (47.79 ± 8.96% MVC), and Shield Cast (43.96 ± 11.25% MVC), all performed with 16 kg, elicited greater global activation than each of the four plank variations (all adjusted p < 0.05). The internal oblique showed the greatest activation across most steel club exercises, reaching 69.40 ± 12.18% MVC during the Lateral Pendulum to Shoulder Cast. Several unilateral exercises also elicited significant side-to-side differences, particularly Mills and Reverse Mills (all p < 0.05). Conclusions: Among experienced steel club practitioners, these exercises elicited exercise-specific, dynamic, and multiplanar core activation patterns, with several exercises—particularly those performed with 16 kg—producing greater global activation than conventional plank variations. These findings support steel club training as a complementary modality for dynamic core training, although the independent contributions of movement pattern and external load, as well as long-term adaptations, remain to be established.