I am a rising senior exercise science major and chemistry minor from Brentwood, New Hampshire. This summer I received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) to do research in the Robert Kertzer Exercise Physiology lab in New Hampshire Hall. My project is a cardiorespiratory and metabolic comparison of low-intensity blood flow restricted running to high-intensity running, which I know sounds like a mouthful but I’ll explain in more detail in a bit. In this blog post, I’ll share more about my project and describe a week in my life as an undergraduate researcher.
The fifteen subjects in my study are healthy female distance runners between the ages of 18 and 30. Each participant made four lab visits in total. The initial visit consisted of some paperwork, measurements like height/weight/body composition, and a maximal oxygen consumption (also called VO2 max) test running on a treadmill. Then participants came to three condition visits that consisted of twelve minutes of running at either a low-intensity with and without blood flow restriction cuffs, or at a high-intensity without the cuffs. Blood flow restricted exercise is most commonly used in resistance (strength) training as a way to use a lighter weight and have similar benefits in terms of muscle/strength gains as one would experience using a heavier weight but without the cuffs. Sometimes this is used before and after surgery to prevent muscle loss.
My advisor, Dr. Summer Cook, has done a lot of research on blood flow restricted exercise with resistance training and older adults. However, there is not a lot of information on using blood flow restriction with continuous aerobic exercise, especially with running, so I decided to see if blood flow restriction could be used effectively at a low-intensity (very slow pace) as a comparable alternative to high-intensity (or more of a normal run pace). If running with the cuffs is better than running without them at the same pace, then this could potentially be a training/rehabilitation method for injured runners in the future. The variables that I measured are heart rate, oxygen consumption, blood lactate, and ratings of perceived exertion on several scales (pain, pleasantness, lower body effort, and the overall effort while running).
I’ve been very thankful for my mentor and for the help of rising sophomore Amanda Ares who had a REAP grant and assisted me with my data collection. We’ve been learning a lot while having fun in the lab. Working with human subjects has provided a great opportunity to meet new people and share the research experience with them. With human subjects, though, comes the need for lots of flexibility with everchanging work scheduling, early mornings and late evenings, and rescheduling visits if participants are sick or have a last-minute change of plans. We’ve been seeing anywhere from two to five subjects per day.
While working in the lab this summer, there were several opportunities to gain additional experience. We have a community testing program, where anyone from UNH and the greater New England community can pay to have exercise/health tests done in the lab. One week, we had eight Nordic skiers from Maine come in to do lactate threshold and VO2max testing. The values they received will be used to determine pacing for training and to document the skiers’ current fitness level. This was a great opportunity for me to learn a different protocol and be efficient with back-to-back testing. We also had a professional alpine skier come in to do a cycling protocol which he is using as a fitness check before continuing to train. In addition to community testing, this summer we gave students from the St. Paul’s Advanced Studies summer program a tour of the lab and taught them how to estimate muscle fiber type composition using our dynamometer chair.
In the exercise science major, the students and faculty run a stage 3 cardiac rehabilitation program in the field house every day. I’ve been assisting with that whenever help is needed, in addition to working at the Employee Fitness Program as needed, both of which I will continue through class in the fall.
I have loved doing research this summer and working in the lab. It’s so much fun to come up with a question about how something might work and then be able to test it to find the answer. I’m very excited to finish up my last few subjects, start my data analysis and write my thesis. I’ll be writing a manuscript from my findings and presenting at both the New England Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine Conference in the fall as well as at the UNH URC in the spring. My advice to anyone thinking about research is it’s never too early to start! Talk to your professors and find out ways to get involved. I started with a REAP project the summer after my freshman year, and my experience with research at UNH has been the highlight of my college experience!
