Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Best West Michigan Hiking Trails, Sarah Brandt

Honors Projects

After visiting 45 parks in the West Michigan area, I narrowed them down to the best 20 for hiking in Allegan, Kent, Muskegon, and Ottawa County. This project is a resource with everything you need to know to explore them for yourself, including education, honorable mentions, and ADA accessible trails.

Accuracy Of Garmin Forerunner 645 During High Intensity Intervaltraining, Camelia Meindertsma

Student Scholars Day Posters

Introduction: Previous research has shown that wrist-worn devices are accurate during structured exercise such as running or walking, but accuracy decreases when it comes to high-intensity interval training (HIIT). The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of Garmin Forerunner 645 against the gold standards of both the Polar HR chest strap and the Actigraph GT9X during HIIT. I hypothesized the Garmin Forerunner 645 would be statistically different in time spent in HR zones and calories burned when compared to the Polar HR chest strap and Actigraph.

Methods: For three weeks, I collected data by completing three 30 …

Investigating Major League Baseball Pitchers And Quality Of Contact Through Cluster Analysis, Charlie Marcou

Honors Projects

This paper investigates the quality of contact that a pitcher allows. Not much is currently known about quality of contact, but if factors determining quality of contact could be determined it could assist teams in identifying and developing pitching talent. There are many problems that come with investigating the control pitchers have over contact allowed, but one area to investigate is whether quality of contact is a repeatable skill. Furthermore, if it is a repeatable skill, then it is important to investigate what kind of benefit controlling contact allowed brings a pitcher. Along with this, groundball and flyball tendencies, and …

Career Pathway Through Exercise Science, Renee Cloeter

Honors Projects

College students have many choices for choosing a major that will lead to a profession or post-graduate school following graduation with a Bachelor’s or Associates degree. For many, making this decision can be daunting and time-consuming as it is important to select the right major for future endeavors. Several students change majors multiple times throughout the course of their college careers causing them to remain in school for an extended period of time to complete graduation. Researching and analyzing potential majors as a new student is a part of the process, but some students may skip this step as there …

Club Athletics And Academic Success, Haydn Vandenberg

Honors Projects

The goal of this research is to examine the relationship between club athletics and academic success at GVSU, focusing specifically on how scholarship of club athletes can be improved.

Comparisons Of Perceived Training Doses In Champion Collegiate-Level Male And Female Cross-Country Runners And Coaches Over The Course Of A Competitive Season, Kyle Barnes

Funded Articles

Background: Session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) is a practical tool for coaches to assess internal training load of their athletes. In a sport like cross-country running, that is individual in nature, but has a team training and competition component, information about the association between external and internal load is lacking. Furthermore, there is a need for studies that examine perception of training doses across multiple training cycles including the competitive season as well as between male and female athletes.

Methods: Session RPE, duration, and training load (TL_RPE = sRPE × duration) of 25 highly trained male …

The Effects Of Intramural Sports On College Students, Tyler P. Ward

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

A Recreational Runner’S Guide To Knee Pain, Alexzanda Johnson

Honors Projects

The most common pain runners experience is associated with the knee joint. However, if you do an Internet search for “knee pain,” there is no telling what will come up or how accurate the information might be. On the other hand, scouring research articles for more fact-based recommendations can be time consuming and confusing. With this guide, the research has been done for you and a list of references is readily available at the end of the document if you want to look further into a specific topic. You shouldn’t need a degree in exercise science or anatomy to have …

The Effects Of Passive Warming On Muscle Injury, Timothy Strickler, Terry Malone, William E. Garrett

Peer Reviewed Articles

This study investigated the effects of passive warming on the biomechanical properties of the musculotendinous unit. Paired tibialis anterior (TA) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles in the rabbit hindlimb were passively heated to different temperatures and then subjected to controlled strain injury. The parameters examined were: 1) percent increase in length to failure, 2) force to failure, 3) energy absorbed by the musculotendinous unit to failure, and 4) site of failure. Warmed (39°C ± 0.5°C) TA (P ≤ 0.01) and EDL (P ≤ 0.05) muscles achieved a greater increase in length from rest before failing than did their contralateral …