Dr. Danilo Fernandes da Silva. Courtesy: Bishop’s University

Local prof elevates athletic performance with advanced exercise physiology

By William Crooks

Local Journalism Initiative

Dr. Danilo Fernandes da Silva, an Assistant Professor in the Sports Studies department at Bishop’s University (BU), has been making significant contributions to the field of applied exercise physiology since his arrival in 2022. With academic roots in Brazil, where he completed his BSc, MSc, and PhD at the State University of Maringá, Dr. da Silva’s research primarily focuses on exercise prescription and training monitoring, with a particular emphasis on female athletes. His innovative work with BU sports teams, including the women’s soccer and rugby teams, showcases his commitment to enhancing athletic performance and well-being through scientific methods.

Innovative collaboration with BU sports teams

In an Aug. 8 interview, Dr. da Silva detailed his ongoing collaboration with the BU women’s soccer and rugby teams, a partnership that began in the fall of 2023 with the rugby team and extended to the soccer team in the winter of 2024. His work centers on monitoring training loads to optimize performance and prevent injuries.

At the core of this collaboration is the use of the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), a well-established metric that athletes use to rate their exertion on a scale from 0 to 10 after each training session. This subjective measure is then compared with more objective physiological data, such as heart rate, to provide a comprehensive picture of an athlete’s response to training. “We apply a very popular metric… The coach can be aware because we can quickly turn around and provide weekly reports of the sessions,” Dr. da Silva explained.

The detailed process involves collecting planned RPE data from the coach before each session, which represents the intensity the coach expects the athletes to experience. After the session, the actual RPEs are collected from each athlete. Dr. da Silva and his research assistants then compare the planned and actual RPEs, along with heart rate data, to identify any discrepancies.

This data-driven approach enables coaches to refine their training prescriptions in real time. “We can minimize potential discrepancies with prescriptions,” Dr. da Silva insisted.

Expanding research to female athlete health

Beyond performance monitoring, Dr. da Silva’s research delves into the unique physiological and health challenges faced by female athletes. He is particularly interested in how reproductive health factors, such as menstrual cycle regularity and contraceptive use, impact athletic performance. “We are interested in putting together perceptual variables as well as physiological markers to try to identify the patterns of these markers over the course of a season,” he said.

One area of concern is the risk of low energy availability, a condition that can arise from a combination of factors including menstrual dysfunction, injury history, and gastrointestinal issues. “[These factors] can increase the risk of athletes experiencing certain negative outcomes throughout the season,” Dr. da Silva explained. By identifying these risks early, Dr. da Silva aims to help coaches and medical staff create more individualized training and recovery strategies.

Integrating stress and recovery into training monitoring

Another key aspect of Dr. da Silva’s work is understanding the role of stress and recovery in athletic performance. “We are also interested in sources and symptoms of stress because we’re dealing with athletes who are at the same time students,” he noted. By identifying the sources of stress—whether they stem from personal life, academic pressures, or training itself—Dr. da Silva hopes to provide coaches with the tools to better support their athletes.

To this end, he has begun incorporating heart rate variability (HRV) into his monitoring system. HRV is a measure of the variation in time between heartbeats and is considered a key indicator of an athlete’s stress levels and recovery state. “We do a resting, continuous monitoring throughout the season of what the variability of the heart rate of an athlete, which allows us to see if they are recovering well,” Dr. da Silva explained. By analyzing HRV data alongside RPE and heart rate information, Dr. da Silva aims to provide a more holistic view of an athlete’s readiness to perform.

High-intensity interval training and endurance research

Dr. da Silva’s expertise is not limited to team sports. He is also deeply involved in research related to endurance training, particularly high-intensity interval training (HIIT). This type of training, which alternates short bursts of intense activity with periods of rest, has gained popularity for its efficiency and effectiveness. “HIIT became very popular because in the past, some researchers identified that it’s a very good alternative if you lack time to exercise,” Dr. da Silva said.

In his research, Dr. da Silva explores how small modifications to HIIT sessions can impact an individual’s enjoyment and adherence to the exercise program. He is particularly interested in whether these modifications can be detected at a neurophysiological level. To do this, Dr. da Silva has partnered with colleagues in the Psychology and Computer Science departments at BU to use EEG technology to monitor brainwave patterns during HIIT sessions.

“We are in the middle of this, almost done with the data collection,” he noted. The goal is to determine whether variations in brainwave activity correspond with the participants’ reported enjoyment of the exercise. “Probably next year, we’re going to be analyzing this information, trying to understand if this previously identified variation in enjoyment that has been done with a simple scale can be explained in a more neurophysiological level,” Dr. da Silva said.

Contributions to Canadian athletes and future research

Dr. da Silva’s work at Bishop’s University not only contributes to the performance of the university’s sports teams but also has broader implications for Canadian athletes, including those competing at the Olympics. “A lot of the work we are doing is really aligned with similar work being done around the world in attempts to contribute to the development of female athletes in different sports,” he said. By improving training monitoring systems and understanding the physiological responses of female athletes, Dr. da Silva’s research helps create more effective training strategies, which can benefit athletes at all levels.

Looking ahead, Dr. da Silva plans to continue developing his training monitoring system, incorporating more physiological markers and expanding his research into the health and performance of female athletes. “We are trying to establish associations between these factors, and within these associations, we want to continuously create reports to the team staff, and at the same time, allow them to use this information to the benefit of the athlete,” he explained.