The Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC) inaugurated the most modern sports laboratory in all of South America, with the highest standards of sports technology worldwide.
This new laboratory of movement science will have an impact on the training of students in physical activity and sports science and physical therapy at UPC. In addition, it will seek to obtain Peruvian high-performing athletes in alliance with the country’s leading sporting institutions.
Pascual Chiarella, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, said that “this research center will be essential in ensuring high-quality training for future health and physical activity professionals, in order to provide them with the best possible care.” for athletes.
The new lab integrates biomechanical and physiological parameters to assess body function. It is equipped with eight high-speed infrared cameras to analyze athlete performance through motion capture, obtaining important data such as movement curvature and trajectory lines.
Added to this are three force platforms which allow the weight and behavior of the load to be correlated to various laboratory tests. Similarly, there is a jumping platform to measure the athlete’s impulse and fall force.
This space also houses a bicycle ergometer, which, connected to a computer, measures heart rate and physiological response to exercise; and a treadmill, which is used to analyze the gait and displacement of the person being assessed.
Giancarlo Becerra, the director of the races involved, commented that the modern laboratory would serve “to carry out a detailed assessment of the athlete’s functional ability”. Similarly, improving the physical activity of vulnerable populations and those with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hyperthyroidism would be useful in caring for them.
The implementation of UPC’s new kinetics laboratory meant an investment of nearly half a million dollars.
