Kristin Garner

Author: Kristin Garner | Major: Exercise Science

My name is Kristin Garner, and I will be a senior this fall within the College of Education and Health Professions. I am majoring in Exercise Science, but I recently decided that I will be preparing to apply for medical school following my graduation. My research is being conducted under the guidance of Dr. McDermott from the Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation. This past summer semester was intended to be my first semester of data collection, but it ended up being a crucial time for me to increase my knowledge of my research topic, as well as refine my first three chapters of my thesis.

My research project will delve into exercise-induced muscle damage, the inflammatory responses to this damage, whether or not waters with anti-inflammatory capabilities (WAC) will impact these responses, and if there is a difference between lean and obese participants. Findings from this research could be beneficial to those who are new to exercise or are changing their exercise programs and are likely to experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). This is because of the potential positive effects of the WAC supplementation in decreasing the adverse sensations of DOMS related to inflammation. This occurs when muscles undergo new stimuli, like transitioning from a sedentary lifestyle to implementing a workout program, or beginning a new type of exercise program that the muscles are unaccustomed to.

My journey of getting into research is quite unconventional. I began my freshman year in the fall of 2019, which came to a quick end when the school was forced to shut down the following spring. In the fall of 2020, I was informed that I was a junior and not a sophomore, which meant that I was a year ahead of what I had planned. In order to stay on track to graduate and maintain my honors status, I had to reach out to several professors who might be willing to let me join their research team although I had never met most of them. Dr. McDermott was kind enough to agree to be my mentor, and we began discussing potential research topics for my thesis. He had a few studies that he was going to begin working on, and I chose the WAC study. I chose this topic because I was a multisport athlete in high school, and there was rarely a time when my muscles were not sore or fatigued from seemingly endless practices. By choosing to research this topic, I am able to learn more about the physiology of muscles, what causes them to become damaged, and the mechanisms responsible for the sensation of soreness. For this study, we will investigate the effects of WAC supplementation on the inflammatory responses induced by an acute heavy resistance exercise program.

After completing the first three chapters of my thesis and presenting all of the information I learned, we were supposed to begin working on participant recruitment and creation of our WAC beverages at the beginning of this summer semester. However, there were unforeseen issues that hindered us from beginning data collection, and we were forced to put our work to a halt until they could be resolved. During this time, I was able to focus my attention on improving the work I had done thus far. I was able to expand my knowledge on this topic and hone in on revising and refining my literature review. This actually proved to be beneficial because I was able to carefully and methodically shape my thesis into a better piece of work with the greater amount of time I had to work on it compared to writing it while taking five courses for school. I feel much more confident in my understanding of what current research has found regarding exercise-induced muscle damage, biomarkers of inflammation, anti-inflammatory supplementation for exercise, and nociception related to DOMS, and I believe that this will help me be more prepared for anything that may come later on in the research process.

Although my research project has seen an unexpected turn of events, I have learned that when things do not go as planned I must use my time to better prepare myself for when they do. I hope that other students, who may face situations that are not going according to plan, can see that sometimes it happens and that is okay. I look forward to this fall where we will begin data collection, work with participants, and learn more about the complexity of the human body through this research.