A tiny mouse puffs and wheezes but keeps pattering its feet along a treadmill.
The mouse thinks it's chasing after a meal, but it's actually being
monitored by kinesiology researchers at the University of Illinois.
"We use the mouse treadmill to study the effect of exercise on the heart,"
says Jennifer McCrae. Once the mouse has reached an optimum fitness level,
researchers then examine its heart. "We use animal models because obviously
we can't use human ones," McCrae says, although her research is devoted
to improving the cardiac health of human beings.
McCrae studies the protein make-up of heart tissues because she wants to
find out about the organ's molecular structure. "We look at the structural
matrix of the heart," she says. This is the material that holds the heart
in place while the heart is beating. The condition of this structure significantly
affects how the heart beats and how well it's able to keep blood flowing
in the body.
McCrae believes that exercise leads to a better-structured heart. Picture
this: A man is puffing and wheezing. He reaches the landing of the stairs,
stops and looks at the rest of the flight he has to negotiate. He clutches
the railing as he tries to contain his breathing and stop the pounding in
his ears.
The man has only climbed two flights of stairs but it seems his heart is
going to give out. This happens to be a 90-year-old man, but the same condition
can happen to sedentary people who don't exercise.
In fact, even the old man could probably improve his heart condition by
exercising. "The structure of the heart deteriorates as you get older," says
McCrae. "It becomes harder for the heart to contract and people get things
like high blood pressure."
But hope isn't lost. "Exercise is proving to help all kinds of people,"
she says. "It even seems to blunt the deterioration of the heart in aging
people. We're finding that exercise really is the key to a healthy heart."
McCrae's work won't stay in the laboratory. If she and her colleagues
are successful in proving the link between heart health and exercise -- and
can suggest ways to maintain a healthy heart -- it will be used in other areas
of kinesiology and therapy.
"Every aspect of cardiac rehabilitation is important," says McCrae. "People
who have just had bypass surgery will get the help of a kinesiologist to rehabilitate
them."
Like other kinesiologists at the lab, McCrae has always been
interested in exercise and fitness. "I've always been an athlete, competing
up to the college level," she says. It was natural for her to continue her
interest in fitness. "A lot of people who are interested in health or fitness
are in our program. We've even had professional athletes come in."
Carol Putnam is a kinesiology professor. She also began her career in the
physical education department. Even though Putnam eventually graduated with
a PhD in biomechanics, she wasn't studying kinesiology in college --
this was the mid-'70s and kinesiology departments didn't exist then.
"All the principles were lumped together under physical education," Putnam
says. "We studied how the body moves, but centered on the physical education
aspect." Over the years, kinesiology has branched out to become its own department
that covers many fields.
"Anything that has to do with human movement -- whether on the field, in
the job environment or in everyday movement -- has to do with kinesiology,"
she says.
When Putnam finished her schooling, she opted to stay within the university
environment rather than going into clinical practice. "It was almost by default,
because there were very few opportunities then to work in a clinic," she explains.
However, Putnam feels she made the right choice. She enjoys teaching biomechanics
to kinesiology students.
Still, it can be difficult to stand up in front of a class of first-year
kinesiology students who are only taking her course because it's mandatory.
"It can be very tiresome to teach students who aren't interested," she
says. "Either these students have a math phobia or they don't. In biomechanics,
you need to know math, so some people don't want to be there."
An interest in both math and science is important if you're to succeed
as a kinesiologist, says Rick Roach. "Make sure you're good and interested
in the sciences, especially physics," he says.
However, teaching students who are interested is rewarding. At the graduate
level, Putnam is directly involved in the students' research projects.
"It's interesting to oversee all of their projects and see how they progress."
One of her students is currently researching an upper leg and knee prosthetic
to see how it affects overall body movement. "He's interested in how
the weight of the prosthetic affects the swing phase of the limb," says Putnam.
"He experiments with altering the swing pattern." Putnam watches over these
and other experiments with great enthusiasm.
Another student is researching how specific running shoe supports affect
rear foot motion. "Things like the compliance of the sole compared with running
injuries are investigated," says Putnam. "The variety is fascinating."
Generally, kinesiologists don't work alone when they're researching
and experimenting in the real world. "It's becoming more and more of
a team effort," says Putnam. "Engineers consider what are the best materials
and what is the best design, while listening to what the kinesiologists have
to say about human movement."
So Putnam helps with projects, sees them completed, and sees her students
leave the academic world to find jobs. She doesn't regret that she has
chosen to stay in the university setting. "It's interesting to teach
others, see so many projects and to watch the field grow."