The Frontiers seminar series goes from strength to strength
The second seminar of the seminar series “Frontiers in Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine” focused on the relationship between the biomechanical properties of the musculo-skeletal system and movement performance across the life span and attracted over 50 academics and applied practictioners.
Drs Tom Korff and Charlie Waugh commenced the seminar by giving a summary of their recent work conducted at Brunel University. Based on their work on muscle tendon mechanics in children, they posed some intriguing hypotheses relating the role of the passive properties of the Achilles tendon within the context of movement economy in children. Dr Tom O’Brien from Liverpool John Moores University took these hypotheses to a “new dimension” gave an overview of how the architecture of muscles scales with age. Keeping in line with the topic of paediatric biomechanics, Professor Dieter Rosenbaum from the University of Münster, Germany shared an impressive longitudinal dataset relating to the development of children’s foot types and shapes, and gave some excellent examples of how scientific evidence can inform clinical practice. Professor Costis Maganaris from Liverpool John Moores University, one of the pioneers of muscle-tendon imaging techniques inspired the audience by demonstrating how the methods he developed can help us understand disease-related changes in muscle tendon properties.
The second part of the seminar was opened by Professor Markus Heller from the University of Southampton who elucidated some of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between musculo-skeletal loading and degenerative diseases. Dr Andrew Spence from the Royal Veterinary College captured the audience by presenting plans for some extraordinary experiments, in which they are planning to selectively switch on and off specific neural motor pathways in mice. Expanding on these plans he argued that implications for rehabilitation would be groundbreaking if such experiments could be replicated in humans. The seminar was concluded by a presentation by the host of the seminar Professor Bill Baltzopoulos from Brunel University. He reminded the audience of the limitations of sophisticated musculo-skeletal models. In a commendable effort to link the previous presentations and to identify communalities, he pointed out the need of using imaging techniques to individualise muscle models in order to achieve more accurate estimates of muscle, tendon and joint forces.
Seminar 3. Mechanisms underlying improvements in exercise tolerance following inspiratory muscle training
The third seminar will take place on Wednesday, 24th April 2013; Heinz Wolff Building, Rm 224
Mechanism 1 - Modulation of metaboreflex activation originating from respiratory muscles leading to preserved muscle blood flow after IMT.
Mechanism 2 - Modulation of afferent feedback from respiratory muscles leading to reduced central fatigue after IMT.
Mechanism 3 - Alteration of the demand/capacity relationship of the respiratory pump in favour of capacity leading to amelioration of dyspnoea and/or breathing effort after IMT.
The seminar deals with the integrative physiology of the respiratory, cardiovascular, muscular and neural systems, and will consider both healthy and patient populations. It will therefore be of interest to academics and postgraduate students in exercise and sports physiology, as well as clinicians working in cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation.
09:00 – 09:45 Prof. Alison McConnell, Brunel University
Inspiratory muscle training: history and putative mechanisms
09:45 -10:30 Dr. Lee Romer, Brunel University
The role of respiratory muscle fatigue and metaboreflex influences upon exercising limb blood flow and performance
10:30 -10:45 Coffee break
10:45 - 11:30 Dr. Emma Ross, University of Brighton
The role of feedback from exercising muscles in central fatigue
11:30 - 12:15 Dr. Caroline Jolley, King’s College, University of London
The role of the respiratory muscles in dyspnoea and exercise tolerance
12:15 – 13:00 Discussion
Next steps for inspiratory muscle training research
CLICK HERE to download the programme including speaker profiles (in PDF).
