Higher level athletes use mental imagery, or visualization, more often than athletes of lower competitive levels. Athletes who use imagery most often are better at imagery, athletes who are better at imagery use imagery more often. Images mean different things to different athletes. A single image can also mean different things to the same athlete. The emotions an athlete attaches to their images are unique to them and can influence both sport performance and how well they expect to perform. Some of my previous research suggests the meaning of images changes with imagery ability and across time and situations. Using surveys this study will assess athletes' use of imagery, how good they are at imagery, and what those images mean to them.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: My research area is assessing athlete's use of mental skills and how this relates to sport performance. My main area of interest is in athlete's use of mental imagery (visualization) and how they use that imagery to perform their best in sport. All athletes have the ability to use imagery but some make better use of it than others.
Student roles: 1. Recruit athlete participants 2. hand out and collect completed consent forms 3. hand out and collect completed questionnaires 4. Enter questionnaire responses into spreadsheet 5. With guidance run basic analyses of data (e.g., average, percentages) 6. With guidance search the literature and make a list of relevant literature 7. Share results of the research with athletes, coaches, and sport administrators
Skills required: Strong English language verbal communication skills. Physical education, sport science, kinesiology, sport coaching, or psychology academic background preferred. Experience with SPSS or Excel would be an asset but not required.
2. Effets de l’activité physique sur la dynamique des symptômes dépressifs chez les personnes vivant avec une obésité et un trouble dépressif : essai randomisé contrôlé de faisabilité
Supervisor: aurelie baillot
University: Université du Québec en Outaouais (Gatineau campus)
La dépression et l'obésité sont deux maladies chroniques fréquemment associées, dont la coexistence aggrave la sévérité des complications. L'activité physique (AP) est reconnue comme traitement efficace pour chacun de ces troubles pris séparément, mais son efficacité chez les personnes souffrant simultanément des deux conditions reste incertaine. Une méta-analyse récente menée par les chercheurs n'a pas démontré d'effets significatifs de l'AP sur les symptômes dépressifs chez les personnes obèses. Plusieurs lacunes expliquent ce constat : manque d'essais randomisés contrôlés (ERC) de qualité, volumes d'AP insuffisants, hétérogénéité des symptômes et méconnaissance de leur dynamique temporelle.
Avant de lancer un grand ERC, ce projet propose d'abord une étude de faisabilité multicentrique menée sur trois sites au Québec et en Ontario (Ottawa/Gatineau, Montréal, Québec). Vingt-six adultes vivant avec une obésité et un trouble dépressif seront recrutés et répartis aléatoirement entre deux groupes : un programme d'AP supervisée (2 séances de 45 minutes par semaine, pendant 9 semaines) ou des soins usuels avec information sur l'AP.
L'originalité du projet réside notamment dans l'évaluation en temps réel de la dynamique des symptômes dépressifs : les participants rempliront une application mobile quatre fois par jour tout au long de l'étude. Des entretiens semi-dirigés post-intervention viendront compléter l'évaluation de l'acceptabilité du protocole.
Les résultats attendus visent à établir la faisabilité d'un futur ERC à grande échelle et à explorer l'efficacité préliminaire de l'intervention. À terme, ce projet pourrait contribuer au développement d'interventions d'AP de précision, mieux adaptées aux caractéristiques individuelles et à la dynamique symptomatique de chaque patient.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Obésité santé mentale activité physique
Student roles: - Recrutement - Évaluation de participantes = Collecte de données - Supervision d'entrainement physique des participantes - Entrée de données - Analyses de données
Skills required: - rigueur - respectueux - organisé - compréhension et parle Français ou l'anglais - connaissances en analyse statistique ou animation de seances d'activité physique = un plus - connaissances des logiciels de base Excel Word
3. Joint work redistribution and the energy cost of exercise
Supervisor: Jared Fletcher
University: Mount Royal University (Calgary campus)
This research aims to understand how human muscles and tendons work together to allow humans to move with the lowest possible energy cost, and why this energy cost increases with age, fatigue, or inactivity. Human locomotion requires both muscles and tendons to work in coordination: muscles generate force, shorten and consume energy while tendons act like elastic springs that store and release energy. For many years, scientists believed tendons primarily served as springs to return energy and reduce the energy cost to move. However, our recent research has shown that this view is incomplete. Instead, tendons help muscles work more economically by allowing them to shorten less, contract more slowly, and consume less energy overall.
This research program will study how the energy cost of movement changes during prolonged exercise and across the lifespan, focusing on how tendons and muscles share mechanical work at different joints, with particular foci at the ankle and knee. During fatigue or aging, individuals perform less work at the ankle, in favor of performing work at the knee. This strategy is thought to raise the energy cost of locomotion. The causes of this shift are not fully understood. Using advanced imaging and modeling tools, including ultrasound, motion capture, and a new non-invasive technique to measure tendon forces, this research will measure how muscle and tendon function change with age, fatigue, in men and women.
Understanding how and why locomotion becomes more costly has broad benefits. For healthy adults and athletes, these findings can help improve endurance, reduce fatigue, and optimize training or footwear design. For older adults or those recovering from injury, the insights can inform better rehabilitation and fall-prevention programs by identifying movement strategies that minimize energy cost.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Dr. Fletcher’s research program seeks to understand human muscle-tendon function and accompanying energy cost during locomotion across the lifespan. Dr. Fletcher will use an integrative approach to study human locomotion, using a combination of biomechanical tools and physiological techniques to address how tendon mechanics influences muscle and whole-body energetics. The goal of this research is to understand the biomechanics and energetics of bipedal locomotion as well as to translate these findings into innovative technological solutions by partnering with and mentoring primarily undergraduate trainees at Mount Royal University to make these discoveries.
Student roles: • Engage in research related to human locomotion in healthy and clinical populations by gathering and synthesizing physiological and biomechanical data. • Data collection, management, entry and analyses. • Schedule, organize and report on status of research activities, including interaction with and recruitment of research participants. • Plan and modify research techniques, procedures, tests and equipment. • Draft, develop, and edit research materials for presentations and peer-reviewed publications.
Skills required: • Experience with research techniques in human movement would be considered an asset. • Previous experience with research practicums, directed readings or directed studies would be an asset. • Ability to perform detailed design, documentation and implementation of moderately complex technological systems. • Demonstrated ability to determine priorities and deadlines independently, make decisions and problem solve. • Skills in Microsoft office (word, excel, powerpoint), computer programming (Matlab, Python) and statistical software (JASP, SPSS, SigmaPlot, Graphpad) would be an asset. • A keen interest in pursuing sport or health sciences and/or academic research as a career.
4. Modeling exercise-responsive cell signaling
Supervisor: David Clarke
University: Simon Fraser University (Burnaby campus)
The biological mechanisms by which humans adapt to exercise training remains an unresolved challenge. It is well established that intracellular signaling systems sense the biochemical and biophysical stressors of exercise and change the expression levels of fitness-promoting genes. But how the "dose" of exercise, i.e., its volume and intensity, are encoded by the signaling systems and decoded by transcriptional control systems remains poorly understood. We hypothesize that the exercise dose is encoded in the signaling "dynamics," i.e., their activities over time, which in turn are decoded by transcription factors that determine the gene expression programs. Since it is challenging to directly measure signaling dynamics in exercising humans, we explore this hypothesis by collecting signaling data using an "in vitro model of exercise" and by developing and studying computer models of the intracellular signaling network. To date, we have studied several established exercise-responsive signaling systems, including AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), focal adhesion kinase (FAK), hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR).
We seek to further develop and validate our in vitro model of exercise, which involves culturing myotubes on a substrate whose stiffness reflects muscle tissue, and then exposing the cells to combinations of electrical stimulation (to induce contraction), hypoxia (to mimic the drop in oxygen levels during exercise), and heating (to mimic increased muscle temperatures). We sample cells over time and measure signaling, which provides quantitative data that inform the parameter values of our computer models. While the focus of this project is computational modeling, the student may be able to assist with experimental work as well if interested.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: I direct the Laboratory for Quantitative Exercise Biology, which seeks to build predictive models for optimizing exercise training for health, fitness, rehabilitation, and physical performance goals. The lab features three lines of inquiry: exercise-responsive cell signaling, quantifying and modeling training load, and evidence-based exercise programming.
Student roles: The specific roles required of the student will depend on the exact project that the student decides to pursue, but they will likely include the following:
- replicate and modify one or more existing kinetic models of exercise-responsive cell signaling systems (e.g., AMPK, calcium signaling, mechanotransduction, hypoxia-inducible factor, MAPK, etc.) - curate quantitative data for informing the models from published literature, bioinformatic databases, and data collected from our experiments - fit models to experimental data using optimization techniques - analyze the model using parameter sensitivity analyses and simulations to discover critical control points and to generate hypotheses about how the signaling systems functions.
Students may be asked to collaborate with other students in the lab to assist with computational tasks.
The student will provide weekly updates to the supervisor, deliver ~2 relatively informal oral presentations to the lab about their work, and write a final technical report that documents the work completed.
Skills required: Essential qualities are a keen interest and curiosity for exercise and muscle biology and cell signaling, and interest and skills in quantitative methods. The project is therefore suitable for students from diverse backgrounds; however, those with training and experience in both biology and computation are preferred.
Desired knowledge: exercise and muscle physiology, cellular signal transduction, kinetic modeling. Desired skills: scientific computer programming in MATLAB (preferred) or in Python or R. Ability to solve ordinary differential equations numerically. Familiarity with bioinformatics pathway and network analysis is an asset. Attitude: demonstrate evidence of independence, resourcefulness, persistence in resolving challenging problems.
5. Step Smart: Exploring Movement Strategies to Prevent Falls in Older Adults
Supervisor: Danielle Bouchard
University: University of New Brunswick (Fredericton campus)
Every year, nearly 100,000 Canadians are hospitalized due to falls—most of them older adults. Regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to prevent falls, but fewer than 1 in 10 programs meet best-practice standards: year-round sessions, 3+ hours weekly, and a focus on balance. Many regions still lack access to these high-quality programs.
Our project—AAIMS (Attract, Adapt, Implement, and Sustain)—brings together researchers, students, and partners across Canada and Northern Ireland to address this issue. We aim to:
1.Attract older adults not currently participating in fall-prevention exercise programs
2.Adapt existing programs to meet best-practice standards
3.Implement new programs where none exist
4.Sustain programs in community settings long-term
Programs will be delivered in-person, online, or hybrid. We’ll interview key stakeholders, track participation and participant characteristics, and measure whether the program reduces falls in real-world settings. This project will help us to understand how to share a program that works in many different settings while reducing participant falls more effectively.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: My research area primarily focuses on maintaining the independence of older adults using exercise as a medium.
Student roles: The student will be involved in the described project but also in other ongoing projects in the Cardio-Metabolic, Exercise, and Lifestyle Laboratory (CELLab). The student will be required to conduct literature searches, write reports, and edit papers. The student may also contribute to application submissions, watch webinars, and attend meetings to learn more about the research field.
Practical opportunities will also be offered, such as recruiting participants for studies and collecting data. Students will learn how to use the necessary laboratory equipment (e.g. heart rate monitors, accelerometers, activpal, bodpod, metabolic cart). The students may also have the opportunity to supervise exercise programs being completed and help as needed. Data collection may take place in the laboratory or may involve the student to interact with community members at local fitness facilities or nursing homes. The student will learn how to work with Excel or SPSS to analyze data and complete reports in the information acquired.
Skills required: The student must have a genuine interest in exercise science related to health research. Experience with MS Office and statistical software is an asset. The student must have a strong work ethic, excellent organizational and time management skills, and be able to interact with co-workers, participants, and employer of the study. Any research experience would be an asset.
What athletes focus on and when they focus on it is important for success in sport. This study will use special equipment that tracks athletes' visual focus to understand what they are focusing on, when and how that relates to how they perform in sport.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: My research area is assessing athlete's use of mental skills and how this relates to sport performance.
Student roles: Students will be trained to use eye-tracking equipment and will assess the eye-tracking of athletes from track and field (athletics). Students may help with recruiting participants, analysing data, and preparing a report. Students will be included as co-authors on any publications or presentations of the study results.
Skills required: No specific skills required. An understanding of the sport of athletics would be helpful but not necessary.