Research - The best type of Training

Ive always been interested about how things work. Ive often destroyed a perfectly functioning piece of gadgetry trying to determine the mechanisms of  its inner workings. I am now completing a PhD in exercise science trying to unravel the mysteries of the human body, and in particular skeletal muscle. I could talk all day about the mechanisms of how muscle responds to various nutritional and exercise stimuli, and am lucky enough to have the opportunity to document my understanding of such things in my forever expanding thesis. For scientists to understand these mechanisms we devise well controlled, meticulously planned research trials that require volunteers from the general public to perform various tasks within the laboratory so we can collect data and begin to draw conclusions. Who are these volunteers? They are people like you.. and often the hardest part of such research is generating interest and recruiting volunteers. Depending upon the study we will target a specific type of athlete. In general I use well trained cyclists or triathletes as they are familiar with the type of training and testing I use to measure adaptation and performance changes in response to specific interventions. My most recent study required 12 well trained cyclists to complete 4 different trials over 4 weeks to measure the effect of caffeine ingestion on cycling power output under conditions of normal or low muscle glycogen content  (I will make this the topic of an upcoming blog). Apart from being poked, prodded and yelled at to squeeze out every bit of performance possible  being a guinea pig in the research lab is often just a well catered for training session. And yet it has the added bonus of undergoing some physiological testing that if completed outside of a research scenario would possibly cost hundreds of $$$$$. So for a little effort and commitment you could actually be paid to train, yes... there is often financial reimbursement for your time and effort plus you get some very handy physiological feedback. By now I hope I have inspired a little interest in my readers. Although my intentions are to educate, they are also to open some avenues to help me entice a new batch of enthused athletes to volunteer for some up coming research. Next on the books is a study investigating the effects of a glucose mouth rinse on 40km TT performance. Although many athletes are aware of the benefits of carbohydrates during exercise many are unaware of the multiple mechanisms of its actions. Apart from being a substrate for muscle contraction it is also becoming evident that carbohydrates can be sensed by receptors in the mouth that ultimately send signals to the brain that enable us to work harder for longer. Our new study is targeting this action and testing it using four 40km TT performed 1/week over 4 weeks. For this I need 12 cyclists/triathletes to perform each of these sessions. So if you have an interest in research, want to dramatically improve your TT performance and have the luxury of a paid catered training session then here's your chance. For further information about participating send me an email at stephen.lane@rmit.edu.au.

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