Thesis advisor: Carolyn Thomas / A quasi-experimental study was done to investigate the relative influence of running on the self-esteem and attributional styles of a group of 623 women in Boston. Volunteers from the participants in the 1983 Bonne Bell 10K race formed the runners group while the two control groups, athletic non-runners and non-athletic women, were composed of volunteers randomly self-selected from among patrons in various Boston service organizations. Study participants were tested using Seligmans Attribution Style Questionnaire (1981) and Hudson's Index of Self-Esteem (1982). Results of the ASQ showed that the women who ran consistently tended to have a more internal than external locus of control and had an attributional style associated with an empowered sense of self. Results of the ISE showed that women who run consistently have a significantly higher level of self-esteem than do either the women who are athletic but who do not run or the non-athletic women, with the non-athletic women scoring with lower self-esteem than the athletic non-runners. On a subjective rating for degree of happiness, the consistent runners scored significantly higher than those women in the control groups. Both clinical and policy implications of these findings were discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1987. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

O crescente aumento da expectativa de vida tem culminado na constante preocupação com qualidade de vida na população idosa. A corrida de rua é um dos esportes que mais adquiriu adeptos dessa faixa etária. Alguns estudos têm reportado um aumento no número de lesões associado a este aumento do número de praticantes. As alterações teciduais decorrentes do envelhecimento biológico podem alterar a mecânica da corrida nos idosos e deixá-los mais susceptíveis a lesões. Contudo, ainda é desconhecido se tais efeitos realmente provocam esses resultados. O objetivo do presente estudo foi comparar a cinemática da corrida em adultos e idosos. Foram analisados 17 adultos (31±6 anos) e 17 idosos (69±2 anos) recrutados voluntariamente para o estudo. Os sujeitos correram em uma esteira ergométrica nas velocidades de 8 e 11 km/h (idosos) e 11 e 14 km/h (idosos). Os sujeitos foram filmados por quatro câmeras de vídeo com freqüência de 120 Hz durante a corrida em esteira. Foram realizadas a digitalização e reconstrução das coordenadas dos pontos digitalizados no espaço real a partir das imagens das quatro câmeras e da calibração pelo método DLT. Os idosos apresentaram menor excursão de movimentos de flexão do joelho e de rotação medial da tíbia. Aparentemente os idosos apresentaram maior assincronia entre os movimentos do retropé e do joelho em relação aos adultos. Esses resultados sugerem que os idosos adotam padrões de movimentos diferentes dos adultos durante a fase de apoio da corrida. A prescrição de exercícios e as estratégias de prevenção de lesões em idosos corredores devem considerar essas diferenças / The growing increase of the life expectancy has been culminating in the constant preoccupation in quality of life in the elderly people. Running is one of the sports that has gained more participants in this age group. Some studies have shown an increase of the number of injuries associated with the increasing number of runners. The tissues changes resulting from the aging can alter the mechanics of the elderly running and leave them more susceptible to injuries. Nevertheless it is still unknown if such effects really cause changes in the mechanics of running in the elderly population. The objective of the present study is to compare the kinematics of the adults and elderly runner. Seventeen adults and 17 elderly runners participated in this study. The subjects ran in a treadmill at two different speeds: 8 and 11 km/h for elderly and 11-14 for adults. The subjects were filmed by four camcorders at 120 Hz. The digitizing and reconstruction of the coordinates of the digitized points were made at APAS System and calibrated with the DLT method. The elderly runners have showed a lower knee flexion excursion and lower tibial internal rotation excursion. It seems that elderly runners presented more asynchrony between rearfoot and knee joint movement than young adults. These results suggest that elderly runners adopted different movement patterns when compared with adults during the stance phase of running. The prescriptions of physical activities and strategies for injury prevention in elderly runners must consider the findings of the present study

There are many different types of footwear available for runners in today's market. Many of these shoes claim to improve a runner's efficiency by altering their stride mechanics. Minimalist footwear claims to aid runners in running more on their forefeet whereas more traditional footwear provides more cushioning specifically for a heel-first landing. The purpose of this research was to determine if runners who were accustomed to running in traditional footwear would acutely alter their running biomechanics when they ran barefoot or in various types of minimalist footwear. Twelve subjects, who were accustomed to running in traditional 12 mm heel/toe differential footwear, ran in five footwear conditions on a treadmill at a controlled pace for 2 minutes after warming up in each condition for 5 minutes. While running in 12 mm heel/toe differential footwear compared to barefoot, subjects ran with a significantly longer ground time, a slower stride rate and greater vertical oscillation. There were not any significant differences in kinematic and kinetic variables when running in the shod conditions despite the varying heel/toe differentials. Foot strike angle did not change under any of the conditions either. Running barefoot proved to be different than running in footwear in that stride rate increased, ground time decreased and vertical oscillation decreased. There were not any significant acute differences between any of the footwear conditions despite having different heel/toe differentials in subjects accustomed to wearing traditional heel-drop footwear. Wearing minimalist or cushioned minimal footwear appears to not be an effective means of changing running mechanics acutely but may need repeated bouts to alter running mechanics.

The cognitive strategies of association and dissociation have been identified and studied in runners and other athletes. Association is said to involve thoughts that are task-oriented and may include a focus on pace, strategy, or physiological sensations. Conversely, dissociation involves task-irrelevant thoughts and may include thinking about such things as relationships, work, spiritual matters, or scenery. To date, studies have been largely descriptive, methodologically flawed, failed to use manipulation checks, and/or present unclear or differing conclusions. The emphasis with previous association and dissociation research has also been with elite and/or endurance athletes, such as marathon runners. Additionally, only a few studies have included more than one exercise setting, and these investigations seemed to indirectly suggest that the exercise environment may influence the use of cognitive strategies, performance, and perceived exertion. In an effort to clarify the effects of cognitive strategies and exercise setting on several dependent variables, the current study investigated a sample of experienced recreational runners in a 3 x 2 mixed experimental design. Exercise setting had three levels (treadmill, indoor track, and outdoor route) and was a within-groups independent variable and cognitive strategy had two levels (association vs. dissociation) as a between-groups factor. The dependent variables were the ratings of perceived exertion, course satisfaction, and performance time for a 5 km run. The results indicated strong effects for the influence of exercise setting. The treadmill setting was rated as least satisfying, while resulting in the highest perceived exertion and slowest performance time. Alternately, the outdoor route resulted in the highest level of course satisfaction, while also yielding the lowest level of perceived exertion. For the dissociation strategy, the outdoor setting garnered the lowest perceived exertion, followed by the indoor track and treadmill, respectively, while with the associative strategy perceived exertion did not significantly differ among the settings. There were no overall differences in perceived exertion or course satisfaction between the cognitive strategies; however, there was a medium effect size and trend for the association group to run faster. The implications and limitations of these data are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Mathematical modeling of human running is a challenging problem from analytical and computational points of view. Purpose of the present research is to develop and study formulations and computational procedures for simulation of natural human running. The human skeletal structure is modeled as a mechanical system that includes link lengths, mass moments of inertia, joint torques, and external forces. The model has 55 degrees of freedom, 49 for revolute joints and 6 for global translation and rotation. Denavit-Hartenberg method is used for kinematics analysis and recursive Lagrangian formulation is used for the equations of motion. The dynamic stability is achieved by satisfying the zero moment point (ZMP) condition during the ground contact phase. B-spline interpolation is used for discretization of the joint angle profiles. The joint torque square, impulse at the foot strike, and yawing moment are included in the performance measure. A minimal set of constraints is imposed in the formulation of the problem to simulate natural running motion. Normal running with arm fixed, slow jog along curves, and running with upper body motion are formulated. Simulation results are obtained for various cases and discussed. The cases are running with different foot locations, running with backpack, and running with different running speeds. Also, extreme cases are performed. Each case gives reasonable cause and effect results. Furthermore, sparsity of the formulation is studied. The results obtained with the formulation are validated with the experimental data. The proposed formulation is robust and can predict natural motion of human running.

Graduation date: 2000

Graduation date: 1995

Women with exercise associated amenorrhea display a disturbance in basal and exercise levels of reproductive, anti-reproductive and stress hormones. Co-incident with chronic exercise are other factors, which alone, also affect the menstrual cycle. Therefore, amenorrheic runners (AR), regularly menstruating runners (RMR) and regularly menstruating sedentary controls (RMSC) were compared for plasma progesterone levels, plasma lipid levels, menstrual cycle characteristics, physical characteristics and nutritional adequacy to determine if the difference in menstrual status could be explained, and to determine whether exercise alone could be attributed as the cause of menstrual cycle disturbances.Plasma progesterone levels were significantly lower in the AR group (. 28 + .02 ng/ml) than in the RMR group (.41 + .06 ng/ml) and the RMSC group (.49 + .06 ng/ml) in the follicular phase. Regularly menstruating runners demonstrated lower plasma progesterone levels in the luteal phase (9.76 + 1.05 ng/ml) than RMSC subjects (10.24 + 2.21 ng/ml). Regularly menstruating runners had a significantly shorter luteal phase length relative to their cycle length (.35 + .01) than RMSC subjects (.46 + .01). Mean age, incidence of parity, age of menarche, height, weight, body composition, max V02 and number of miles run per week did not differ between the RMR and AR subjects. Amenorrheic runners took in significantly less fat, red meat, phosphorous and total calories than the RMR subjects. Serum LDL-C was significantly higher in the AR subjects (89.2 + 9.7 mg/dl) than in the RMR subjects in both the luteal (67.8+ 3.4 mg/dl) and follicular (66.8+ 5.6 mg/dl) phases. Serum HDL-C was significantly higher in the RMR subjects in both the luteal (62.9+ 4.1 mg/dl) and follicular (59.2+ 2.9 mg/dl) phase, and in the AR subjects (63.9+ 4.2 mg/dl), than in the RMSC subjects in the luteal (49.2+ 5.9 mg/dl) and follicular (47.2+ 2.4 mg/dl) phase. Serum VLDL-C did not differ between any groups.This investigation demonstrates that hormonal and lipid level alterations with exercise are significantly different in the amenorrheic runner. However, regularly menstruating runners display alterations which may represent and intermediate or potential phase of menstrual cycle disturbances. The nutritional inadequacy or energy imbalance separates amenorrheic runners from regularly menstruating runners. Thus, it appears that exercise alone is not enough to cause the hormonal disturbances that trigger amenorrhea, and, that exercise associated amenorrhea is not unlike other amenorrheas of hypothalamic origin.

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This paper will explore how track and field athletes are currently using social media, what types of social media attract or repel sponsorship and what barriers and opportunities exist for social media use in the sport of track and field. A variety of different sources will be used including academic papers, interviews with community managers from Saucony and Brooks and social media publications. / text