Current MSc Sports Science for Optimal Performance student Ciaran O’Grady has offered up his experience of SS566 the undergraduate dissertation module. Read below for Ciaran’s thoughts on the dissertation and his study:
For my Undergraduate (BSc) dissertation here at the School of Sport & Exercise Sciences, I completed a research study that investigated one possible reason for the reduction in performance during prolonged cycling. It has been shown previously that during endurance cycling there is a decrease in how efficiently the body utilizes the oxygen available to it, but it is not fully understood what causes this decrease to occur. Cycling efficiency is a measure of the power output to power input and is a key determinant of cycling performance. My research study was designed to assess whether the decline cycling efficiency can be explained by changes in how well the working muscles utilize oxygen to produce the same power output in athletes during a bout of prolonged endurance exercise.
In order to do this, it was necessary to assess how quickly the muscle was using the oxygen available to it. A novel method of doing this is by shining near-infrared light through the muscle and seeing how much is absorbed along the way. Blood with oxygen attached to it has a differing infrared absorbency to blood without oxygen, and this can be used to calculate the proportion of blood within the muscle that is oxygenated and deoxygenated. By preventing supply of fresh blood to the muscle using an expanding cuff, it is possible to see how quickly the muscle utilizes the finite supply of oxygen left in the muscle; which was proposed to increase in speed over the course of the exercise bout.
We found that the oxygenation of the muscle reduced significantly over a 2-hour bout of prolonged cycling, which was mirrored by reductions in cycling efficiency. It was also observed that muscle oxygen consumption increased throughout the exercise.
The data from this study suggest that reductions in the way the muscles can use oxygen can contribute to the decrease in exercise efficiency observed during endurance exercise. This research has provided another piece to the puzzle that is endurance physiology and how numerous systems work, and change, in synergy.
My personal experience of conducting this research was extremely rewarding; I gained an insight into the many processes involved in conducting novel scientific research. It was also a great honor to present this research at the 2nd World Congress of Cycling Science, and I would like to thank James Hopker and Benjamin Pageaux for giving me their supervision and assistance during the completion of this research study. This experience strengthened my decision to continue onto postgraduate study, and I am currently studying for my MSc in Sports Science for Optimal Performance here at the University of Kent.
This research was presented at the 2nd World Congress of Cycling Science (2014). Research was conducted under the supervision of Dr. James Hopker and Benjamin Pageaux. Publication – http://isj.sjournals.net/index.php/JSC/article/view/1466/1415