Jose graduated from St Mary's University, Twickenham, London with a BSc in Sport and Exercise Sciences in 2018. This was followed by the completion of an MSc in Musculoskeletal Sport Science and Health at Loughborough University in 2019. He published the results of his MSc dissertation project in the journal Sports Biomechanics. This work investigated how different playing surface traction influences movement strategies during a sidestep-cutting task in futsal and their implications for ankle joint performance and sprain injury risk.
Following his MSc, Jose went on to work as a researcher at Instituto de Biomecanica de Valencia, Spain, where he participated in a range of projects focused on the development of new technologies and methodologies aimed at injury prevention and rehabilitation with a special focus on the lower limbs. He liaised with different populations, including elite and amateur athletes and elderly and military cohorts.
He is also a doctoral researcher who recently submitted his thesis and is currently awaiting his viva examination. This marks a significant milestone in his academic journey, and he looks forward to sharing his work through new journal publications and defending his research findings. Jose’s interests lie in musculoskeletal health, biomechanics and emerging technologies with clinical applications.
Jose currently works alongside Dr Daniel Fong and Professor David Williams on an MOD-funded project, Optimising Rehabilitation Pathways in Severely Injured Personnel: An ADVANCE Study Extension.
Jose started his doctoral studies in October 2020 at Loughborough University in tight collaboration with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. His research project titled Investigating long-term musculoskeletal biomechanics of military veterans post traumatic lower limb amputation, aims to understand the relationships between functional outcomes with respect to muscle size, strength and gait biomechanics in a cohort of UK veterans with above and below knee lower limb amputations to enable individualised rehabilitation pathways. Jose’s study constitutes a "Bolt-On" project to the ArmeD serVices trAuma rehabilitatioN outComE Study (ADVANCE) ongoing project at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Stanford Hall, which is a longer-term multicentre study investigating health in injured service personnel in collaboration with Imperial College.
Featured publications
Conference publications and disseminations
- Jose Manuel Frias Bocanegra, Natalie Egginton, Daniel Fong, Patrick Wheeler, Tom Blankenstein, Mark Lewis, Alex Bennett, David Williams and Sarah Stapley. Using knee extensor-flexor torque and functional performance measurement with biomechanical analysis to understand the risk of musculoskeletal injury in the intact limb of young veterans with lower limb amputations due to battlefield trauma. Poster presentation at the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) 2024, Florida, USA.
- Jose Manuel Frias Bocanegra, Natalie Egginton, Daniel Fong, Patrick Wheeler, Tom Blankenstein, Mark Lewis, Alex Bennett, David Williams and Sarah Stapley. Measurement of gluteal size, hip extensor strength and gait biomechanics evaluated by a 6MWT demonstrates preserved physical performance in young military veterans with lower limb amputations 10-15 years post-battlefield trauma. Oral presentation at Blast and Conflict Injury Conference 2024, Imperial College London, UK.
- Jose Manuel Frias Bocanegra, Natalie Egginton, Daniel Fong, Alex Bennett, David Williams and Sarah Stapley. Measuring differences in functional gait performance using the 6-Minute Walking Test in participants 10-15 years post traumatic amputation. E-poster presentation at the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) Congress 2023, Liverpool, UK.
- Jose Manuel Frias Bocanegra, Natalie Egginton, Daniel Fong, Patrick Wheeler, Tom Blankenstein, Mark Lewis, Alex Bennett, David Williams and Sarah Stapley. Muscle size, strength and gait biomechanics in rehabilitated UK veteran unilateral and bilateral transfemoral amputees. Oral presentation at the Combined Services Orthopaedic Society (CSOS) Conference 2023, Keble College. University of Oxford, UK.
- Jose Manuel Frias Bocanegra, Natalie Egginton, Daniel Rothwell, Daniel Fong, Patrick Wheeler, Tom Blankenstein, Mark Lewis, Alex Bennett, David Williams and Sarah Stapley. Strength development and muscle quality in military traumatic lower limb below knee amputations. Oral presentation at the Combined Services Orthopaedic Society (CSOS) Conference 2022, China Fleet Club Plymouth, UK.
- Jose Manuel Frias Bocanegra, Richard Allan, Daniel Fong, Patrick Wheeler, Mark Lewis, Alex Bennett, David Williams, and Sarah Stapley. Major musculoskeletal study limitations with military traumatic lower limb amputations. Oral presentation at the Combined Services Orthopaedic Society (CSOS) Conference 2021, D-Day Museum Portsmouth, UK.
- Jose Manuel Frias Bocanegra and Daniel Fong. The effects of sport surface traction on the ankle biomechanics in male futsal players during a sidestep cutting task. Poster presentation at the Scandinavian Sports Medicine Congress 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark.