Search Results

The physiological effects of endurance exercise have been a primary area of research in exercise science for many years. This research has led not only to a greater understanding of human physiology but also the limits of human performance. This is especially true regarding the effects of endurance exercise on energy metabolism and nutrition. However, as science has attempted to understand the physiological and nutritional demands of endurance exercise lasting 1 to 3 hours, an increasing number of athletes have begun participating in ultraendurance events lasting 4 to 24 hours. Consequently some research groups are now investigating the physiological responses to ultraendurance training and performance. This paper reviews the literature on ultraendurance performance and discusses nutritional factors that may affect bioenergetic, thermoregulatory, endocrinological, and hematological responses to ultraendurance performance.

Strength, conditioning, and nutrition play an important role in preparing athletes to perform to the best of their ability. For this reason, nearly all competitive teams employ strength and conditioning specialists to prepare their athletes for competition, and most teams have sport dietitians and/or nutrition consultants as part of their performance-enhancement team. Academic and professional preparation of strength and conditioning and sport-nutrition specialists in kinesiology programs has opened up a number of career opportunities for students and scholars. In addition, advances in technology have enhanced the ability of strength and conditioning specialists and sport nutritionists to monitor athletes during training and competition. This paper provides an overview of the history, professional preparation, program components, and general principals of strength and conditioning and sport nutrition and the impact they have had on high-level performance, as well as future trends in these fields.

Online education has become an increasingly popular means of delivering educational programs in health and kinesiology. It has helped departments meet increasing enrollment demands and provided additional resources that support students and faculty. A number of challenges, however, are associated with developing these types of programs. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the issues that Texas A&M University has experienced in developing extensive online courses and distance education programs. The paper discusses methods and models employed to develop online and distance programs in health and kinesiology and provides a case study of some of the opportunities and challenges that the Sport Management Division experienced in developing an online master's program. Issues related to efficacy, management, funding, and student success are discussed. Health and kinesiology administrators should consider these issues as they look to develop or grow online course offerings in the discipline.

This is an era in which academic units in higher education are expected to do more with less. State- and institutionally-appropriated funding streams are generally decreasing or stagnant. Federal grant funding is at its lowest level in years, and unlikely to rebound anytime soon. Institutions are restricting tuition increases to allow greater accessibility to students of limited means as well as to heed public demand for more accountability in the “educational product”. Enrollment growth adds pressure to academic units but rarely results in immediate resources directed to the affected units. To compound this problem, kinesiology is one of the fastest growing majors nationwide. With such mounting pressures on academic units and their leaders, creative entrepreneurial resourcefulness is not only rewarded, but required. This paper presents a series of successful and practical resource-generating strategies from the unique perspectives of units at several different institutions.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of carbohydrate supplementation during intense training on dietary patterns, psychological status, and markers of anaerobic and aerobic performance. Seven members of the U.S. National Field Hockey Team were matched to 7 team counterparts (N = 14). One group was blindly administered a carbohydrate drink containing 1 g·kg⁻¹ of carbohydrate four times daily, while the remaining group blindly ingested a flavored placebo during 7 days of intense training. Subjects underwent pre- and posttraining aerobic and anaerobic assessments, recorded daily diet intake, and were administered the Profile of Mood States (POMS) psychological inventory prior to and following each practice. Results revealed that the carbohydrate-supplemented group had a greater (p < .05) total energy intake, carbohydrate intake, and change (pre vs. post) in time to maximal exhaustion following training while reporting less postpractice psychological fatigue. However, no significant differences were observed in remaining psychological, physiological, or performance-related variables.

This study examined the effects of ingesting nutritional supplements designed to promote lean tissue accretion on body composition alterations during resistance training. Twenty-eight resistance-trained males blindly supplemented their diets with maltodextrin (M), Gainers Fuel® 1000 (GF), or Phosphagain™ (P). No significant differences were observed in absolute or relative total body water among groups. Energy intake and body weight significantly increased in all groups combined throughout the study with no group or interaction differences observed. Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry-determined body mass significantly increased in each group throughout the study with significantly greater gains observed in the GF and P groups. Lean tissue mass (excluding bone) gain was significantly greater in the P group, while fat mass and percent body fat were significantly increased in the GF group. Results indicate that total body weight significantly increased in each group and that P supplementation resulted in significantly greater gains in lean tissue mass during resistance training.

The purpose was to investigate the effects of CYP1A2 −163C > A polymorphism on the effects of acute caffeine (CAF) supplementation on anaerobic power in trained males. Sixteen trained males (age: 21.6 ± 7.1 years; height: 179.7 ± 5.6 cm; body mass: 72.15 ± 6.8 kg) participated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLA) controlled crossover design. Participants supplemented with CAF (6 mg/kg of body mass) and an isovolumetric PLA (maltodextrin) in random order and separated by 7 days, before an all-out 30-s anaerobic cycling test to determine peak, average, and minimum power output, and fatigue index. Genomic deoxyribonucleic acid was extracted to identify each participants CYP1A2 genotype. Six participants expressed AA homozygote and 10 expressed C alleles. There was a treatment by genotype interaction for peak power output (p = .041, η² = .265, observed power = 0.552) with only those expressing AA genotype showing improvement following CAF supplementation compared with PLA (CAF: 693 ± 108 watts vs. PLA: 655 ± 97 watts; p = .039), while no difference between treatments was noted in those expressing C alleles (CAF: 614 ± 92 watts vs. PLA: 659 ± 144 watts; p = .135). There were no other interaction or main effects for average or minimum power output, or fatigue index (p > .05). In conclusion, the ingestion of 6 mg/kg of CAF improved peak power output only in participants with the AA genotype compared with PLA; however, expression of the CYP1A2 did not influence average or minimum power output or fatigue index.

Six trained male cyclists and triathletes participated in a double blind study to determine the effects of phosphate loading on maximal and endurance exercise performance. Subjects ingested either 1 gm of tribasic sodium phosphate or a glucose placebo four times daily for 3 days prior to performing either an incremental maximal cycling test or a simulated 40-km time trial on a computerized race simulator. They continued the supplementation protocol for an additional day and then performed the remaining maximal or performance exercise test. Subjects observed a 17-day washout period between testing sessions and repeated the experiment with the alternate supplement regimen in identical fashion. Metabolic data were collected at 15-sec intervals while venous blood samples and 2D-echocardiographic data were collected during each stage of exercise during the maximal exercise test and at 8-km intervals during the 404cm time trial. Results indicate that phosphate loading attenuated anaerobic threshold, increased myocardial ejection fraction and fractional shortening, increased maximal oxidative capacity, and enhanced endurance performance in competitive cyclists and triathletes.