Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Environmental Temperature On High-Intensity Interval Training, Jason R. Boynton

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Endurance athletes typically spend the large majority of training (> 70%) at low intensities (i.e. below lactate threshold) coupled with short and intermittent bouts of high-intensity exercise or interval training (HIIT). Despite HIIT being a relatively small part of training in terms of duration, it has a substantial effect on the adaptations to endurance training. While it is well-established endurance exercise performance is affected in both hot and cold environmental conditions, the effect ambient temperature (TA; frequently referred to as environmental temperature) has on HIIT as performed by an endurance athlete population is not well understood. Therefore, the overall purpose …

Exercise And Nutrition Induced Weight Loss For Prostate Cancer Patients, Rebekah Louise Wilson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis encompasses six main chapters - two reviews and four experimental chapters, in addition to a general introduction and discussion.

Review 1 (Chapter 2) is a discussion of the negative impact of obesity on prostate cancer prognosis and common prostate cancer treatments.

Review 2 (Chapter 3) is an evaluation of the current literature examining prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and how exercise and nutrition interventions can be used to induce fat loss, while preserving or improving lean mass.

Study 1 (Chapter 4) is an examination of the efficacy of a weight loss program in altering body …

Effects Of Long-Term Participation In Tennis On Cognitive Function In Elderly Individuals, Scott Culpin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Many studies have reported the relationship between exercise and cognition with conflicting results. This may be due to differences in intervention durations, session lengths, intensities, and type of exercise. It has been suggested that exercises requiring greater cognitive demand such as football, basketball and racquet sports, are protective against cognitive decline, compared to less cognitively demanding exercises such as swimming, cycling and running, however, research concerning exercise types are currently limited. The present study tested the hypothesis that elderly individuals who had been regularly playing tennis more than 10 years, would have greater cognitive function than those who had been …

Evaluation Of Acceptance And Efficiency Of Exercise For Indigenous Australians To Benefit Physiological, Anthropometric And Metabolic Syndrome Outcomes, Tuguy Esgin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The proposed study will provide an increased understanding in a much-understudied area of how the Australian Indigenous community perceives physical activity and the beneficial effects for improving health outcomes.

The PhD will be made up of three studies:

1) To design an exercise prescription that is culturally appropriate and specifically addresses the major Indigenous health issues around metabolic syndrome.

The first will be a cross sectional study that surveys the motivators and barriers to physical activity within the Perth Noongar community. The results of this study will be used to enhance the intervention section of the PhD. It will provide …

Bone Strength, Load Tolerance And Injury Risk In Elite Australian Football, Nicolas H. Hart

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A paucity of research exists to characterise and investigate lower-body musculoskeletal characteristics and morphological adaptations in elite Australian Footballers with the aim to improve screening, monitoring and load management practices. Given the high prevalence of lower-body skeletal injuries in Australian Football; and the ability to measure, modify and train muscle and bone strength and their derivatives; this project served to extend scientific understanding of musculoskeletal morphology and bone strength characteristics in elite level field-based team sport athletes through a series of research studies using Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) and peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT). In particular, studies one and two …

Muscle Damage And Metabolic Profiles Of Eccentric Cycling, Luis Penailillo

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Eccentric cycling, in which the knee extensor muscles perform eccentric contractions while trying to brake the backward rotational movements of the cranks of a cycle ergometer, has been shown to effectively increase muscle function and volume with a low metabolic cost. However, acute responses to repeated eccentric cycling bouts have not been well documented. Thus, the primary purposes of this PhD project were to investigate muscle damage and metabolic profiles of eccentric cycling in comparison to concentric cycling (Studies 1-3), and muscle-tendon behaviour (Study 4) during eccentric cycling in relation to muscle damage.

Study 1 compared muscle damage and metabolic …

Feedback Control For Exergames, Jeff Sinclair

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The concept of merging exercise equipment with video games, known as exergaming, has the potential to be one of the main tools used in addressing the current rising obesity epidemic. Existing research shows that exergaming can help improve fitness and additionally motivate people to become more active. The two key elements of attractiveness - how much people want to play or use the exergaming system; and effectiveness – how effective the exergaming system is in actually increasing or maintaining physical fitness, need to be maximised to obtain the best outcomes from an exergaming system; we put this forward as the …

The Effects Of Movement Based Interventions On Doms And Muscle Damage Following Eccentric Exercise, Zainal A. Zainuddin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common symptom experienced by most adults following unaccustomed exercise. It is known that DOMS is peculiar to eccentric exercise that results in muscle damage which is characterized by prolonged loss of muscle function. DOMS and subsequent impaired muscle function, reduces the ability to maximize performance of daily living tasks, and has negative effects on sports adherence and activity based healthy lifestyle. Thus, treatments to ameliorate DOMS and enhance recovery of muscle function are important.

Proprioceptive And Muscle Activation Changes In Triceps Surae Associated With Exercise Induced Muscle Damage, Carmel Nottle

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The aim of this thesis was to examine proprioceptive and activation changes that occur in triceps surae in response to exercise induced muscle damage (EIMD). While proprioceptive changes have previously been demonstrated in association with EIMD, the present investigation examined the role of a number of potential contributing factors to these changes, following both single and repeated bouts of eccentric exercise.

The Effects Of A Heavy Resistance Training Intervention Of The Plantar Flexors On The Recovery Of Strength, Power, Acceleration, And Agility In Recreational Athletes, Naomi A. Forrest

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Resistance training is a highly utilised form of exercise that is used to develop strength, power, speed and muscular endurance. Although it is associated with many positive benefits it also has some potentially unfavourable effects. These are manifested in the form of altered muscle function through the effects of muscle fatigue and exercise induced muscle damage. Various aspects muscle fatigue and damage have been well studied, however research into the effects of these on tests of strength, power, acceleration and agility is sparse. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a heavy resistance intervention on …

The Effect Of Prescribed And Preferred Intensity Exercise On The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Perceived Exertion In Older Adults, Keith R. Scotson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study was concerned with acute responses to exercise in people over the age of 50 (N = 80). In particular the relationship between Self-efficacy and perceived exertion during exercise at workloads (a) based on a target heart rate (prescribed intensities) and (b) based on participant preference (preferred intensities) were observed. Perceptual (perceived exertion), Self-efficacy and heart rate responses of low active older participants engaged in either walking or cycle ergometer exercise at preferred and prescribed intensities were also reported. Significant inverse correlations were observed between pre and post exercise Self-efficacy and perceived exertion during acute exercise at prescribed intensities …

The Relationship Between Functional And Histological Changes In Muscle Following Eccentric Exercise In Mice, Michael John Newton

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) is known to be produced by novel or unaccustomed exercise, especially high force eccentric contractions. Histological myofibre disruption, force loss and muscle soreness are associated with EIMD and have implications for sporting performance. Traditional practices of assessing the extent of disruption to the myofibres is by performing needle biopsies and subsequently analysing the histology of the fibres. Recently there has been interest in investigating whether changes in force production and contractile properties of muscle following damaging exercise correlate strongly with the magnitude of disruption to the myofibres. The main aim of this study was to investigate …