SPUR Project

2010 winner (10-19)

The effects of vitamin E and C supplementation on knee joint neuromechanical responses to exercise-induced muscle damage

Supervisors: Dr Claire Minshull, Dr Kirsty Hunter (Sports Science)

Unaccustomed exercise that involves high-intensity (eccentric) loading of the muscles commonly causes exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). The ensuing losses to muscle performance are associated with a pain response in the involved muscles that is delayed and peaks at 24 to 48 hours following exercise. The current study proposes to investigate if antioxidant vitamin supplementation will ameliorate the negative effects on muscle performance caused by a single, and a repeated-bout of high-intensity exercise. It is anticipated that knowledge will be advanced by the novel monitoring of the responses of more sophisticated indices of muscle performance important in joint stabilisation and the avoidance of further injury. Student tasks will include gathering and critically evaluating related research, recruiting and interacting with participants for the study and logging, analysing and presenting data.