{"id":73472,"date":"2021-08-03T15:34:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T19:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=73472"},"modified":"2021-09-14T10:22:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T14:22:36","slug":"child-participants-needed-for-brock-muscle-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/08\/child-participants-needed-for-brock-muscle-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Child participants needed for Brock muscle research"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the surface, differences between adults and children may seem obvious. Adults are bigger, stronger and faster than children, presumably because adults have had more time for their muscles to grow and develop.<\/p>\n

But is time the only factor that accounts for differences between adults\u2019 and children\u2019s muscles? Are there areas in which children may have a competitive advantage over adults?<\/p>\n

PhD student Stacey Woods is determined to find out. She is looking for boys between the ages of seven and 12 to perform a variety of physical activities in her team\u2019s laboratory at Brock University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re asking the research participants to do high-intensity and low-intensity exercise and endurance-type tasks,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re using some new technology called surface electromyography decomposition, or surface dEMG, to assess their muscle actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data Woods collects from participants\u2019 exercises will ultimately compare muscle activation between children and adults.<\/p>\n

Woods\u2019 research began last year, but COVID-19 restrictions stalled the in-person portion of the research. With Brock now in the third stage<\/a> of its reopening, \u201cwe\u2019re following very strict procedures for the safety of the participants and the safety of researchers,\u201d says Woods. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make it work while being very accommodating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those interested in participating in the study should contact Woods at sw16hl@brocku.ca<\/a> or call the lab at 905-688-5550x 5623.<\/p>\n

The study is part of work underway by a larger Brock research team that is examining the effect of exercise and physical training on bone health and on neuromuscular function during growth and maturation.<\/p>\n

Heading the team are pediatric exercise physiologists Bareket Falk and Nota Klentrou, whose current work focuses on the effect of growth, maturation and physical activity on muscle function and on bone development.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren\u2019s muscles don\u2019t function the same way as adults\u2019 muscles,\u201d says Falk, a Professor of Kinesiology. \u201cThey have their unique particularities and respond to exercise differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her study, Woods is aiming to test the team\u2019s theory that children use less of their \u2018fast-twitch\u2019 muscles than adults do.<\/p>\n

Fast-twitch, or Type 2, muscles, are used in movements that require quick, short energy bursts like what are needed for powerlifting or sprinting.<\/p>\n

In contrast, \u2018slow-twitch,\u2019 or Type 1, muscles support sustained movements and hold postures. They have much more of an oxygen supply than Type 2 muscles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hypothesizing that during all these different tasks that participants will undertake, we\u2019ll see a difference in performance, which is due to this lesser activation of these faster, Type 2 muscles,\u201d says Woods.<\/p>\n

But, the flip side is that children\u2019s Type 1 muscles enable them to sustain movements for a long time, perhaps even more than adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interesting thing is, if you make exercise relative, kids can produce the same amount of force for a longer period of time \u2014\u00ad they\u2019re more resistant to fatigue,\u201d says master\u2019s student James Maynard.<\/p>\n

Maynard is finishing his thesis on his study comparing muscle use in children and adults. He says his team believes that children use about 85 per cent of their muscle fibres compared to around 95 per cent that adults use.<\/p>\n

Maynard, Woods and Falk say their team\u2019s insights into children\u2019s muscle use could inform rehabilitation and exercise training programs for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we prescribe activity to children, it shouldn\u2019t be based on what we know is good for adults,\u201d says Falk, who received Brock University\u2019s 2021 Award for Distinguished Research and Creative Activity<\/a> for her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been applying adult guidelines to children\u2019s exercise where this doesn\u2019t always lead us to good results,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the surface, differences between adults and children may seem obvious. Adults are bigger, stronger and faster than children, presumably because adults have had more time for their muscles to grow and develop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":73474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,9794,7,3319,188,55,1,4,5],"tags":[3712,1350,2149,10477,703,996,2147,7488,5505,10583,10584,8562,3152,3325,10582],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73473,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73472\/revisions\/73473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}