- My most cherished athletic accomplishment was being able to play softball at the collegiate level. It taught me very early on in my college career how to balance school work, jobs, and a sport all at once. It was also very challenging because I never did weight training before I came to college. Lifting heavier weights each week and pushing my body to lengths I never thought possible was very rewarding for me. I believe it also helped me greatly on the field.
- Understanding how the body reacts to stimulus such as exercise and how much you are able to push yourself in an energetic state can give insight to what your body is made up of. A sprinter and a marathon runner can yield much different body types, and those anatomical and chemical differences can explain a lot about the make-up of people, but also different animals as well. A sprinter may have the same muscle fibers as say a rabbit, where as a couch potato may share commonalities with a sloth. It would be interesting to see what muscle fibers we are mostly comprised of. During the scavenger hunt, I found an article that discussed some exercises to see if you were mostly composed of fast-twitch or slow-oxidative fibers. A blurb of it is attached.
- Last term I took Animal Physiology and I feel that a lot of the same topics may overlap. Also taking classes such as orthopedic biomechanics and advanced mechanics may help me understand what is happening physically to joints, etc. where I struggle learning things that happen at the cellular level.
Bio 375: Exercise Physiology
Spring 2019
1. I find it incredibly interesting how playing the same sport, but at different levels (i.e. high school versus college) can have a very different impact on your life. I stopped playing sports in high school, so I never got to experience the difference associated with the different levels.
2. I found these same concepts interesting when we took Animal Physiology last term, which is what made me want to take this class. When we discussed breeding couch potatoes with other coach potatoes resulted in a worse athlete and breeding runners with other runners produced a mouse with greater running ability, I realized that there are so many different variables at play when it comes to what our bodies can do, and why.
3. The cellular level of biological processes have always baffled me, as I am much better at understanding the ‘big picture’ concepts. I’m interested to see how orthopedic biomechanics and animal physiology play a role and are intertwined within this class.
Kara, Thanks for the interesting post. I think your experience being a softball athlete, as well as the courses you have taken will be valuable to this course and our discussions.
Kayla: Thanks for the comment. I agree that the topics in animal physiology are similar in a lot of ways and I hope this course helps reinforce some of the key concepts.