The impact of sprint interval training frequency on blood glucose control and physical function of older adults

Exercise is a powerful tool for improving health in older adults, but the minimum frequency required is not known. This study sought to determine the effect of training frequency of sprint interval training (SIT) on health and physical function in older adults. Thirty-four (13 males and 21 females) older adults (age 65 ± 4 years) were recruited. Participants were allocated to a control group (CON n = 12) or a once- (n = 11) or twice- (n = 11) weekly sprint interval training (SIT) groups. The control group maintained daily activities; the SIT groups performed 8 weeks of once- or twice-weekly training sessions consisting of 6 s sprints. Metabolic health (oral glucose tolerance test), aerobic capacity (walk test) and physical function (get up and go test, sit to stand test) were determined before and after training. Following training, there were significant improvements in blood glucose control, physical function and aerobic capacity in both training groups compared to control, with changes larger than the smallest worthwhile change. There was a small to moderate effect for blood glucose (d = 0.43–0.80) and physical function (d = 0.43–0.69) and a trivial effect for aerobic capacity (d = 0.01) between the two training frequencies. Once a week training SIT is sufficient to produce health benefits. Therefore, the minimum time and frequency of exercise required is much lower than currently recommended

Encounters in documentary practice: a narrative hermeneutic inquiry with undergraduate first-time filmmakers.

This study is situated within traditions of education research investigating undergraduate students’ experiences as first-time practitioners in media practices. The research examines the ways in which students encounter documentary practices as first-time filmmakers. I argue that documentary filmmaking should be seen as a complex creative practice characterised by ethical and practical dilemmas which practitioners face. Whilst such practice clearly involves production knowledge or techne, seen as the ability to produce a well-crafted artefact, this study focuses on the practical knowledge or phronesis that is demanded of documentary filmmakers. Drawing on the virtue practice perspective of Alasdair MacIntyre, the research illuminates the practical and ethical negotiations students make as they go about their documentary filmmaking practice. As the research participants are my own students, I adopt a relational Narrative Inquiry research design informed by the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Through one-to-one conversational interviews with participants and the writing of eight first person stories, I give narrative hermeneutic interpretations of these filmmaking experiences and reveal the way student filmmakers enact practical knowledge as they go about their projects. The research argues that such knowledge, often concealed or marginalised in views of documentary solely as production, misses the important ‘educative energy’ that lies at the heart of documentary as ethical practice. By illuminating the ‘encounters’ within individual experiences of filmmaking, the research shows the practical knowledge or ‘phronesis’ that is developed by these first-time filmmakers

Face-to-face and online collaboration: appreciating rules and adding complexity

This paper reports how 6-8 year-old children build, play and share video-games in an animated programming environment. Children program their games using rules as creative tools in the construction process. While working both face-to-face and remotely on their games, we describe how they can collaboratively come to explain phenomena arising from programmed or 'system' rules. Focusing on one illustrative case study of two children, we propose two conjectures. First, we claim that in face-to-face collaboration, the children centre their attention on narrative, and address the problem of translating the narrative into system rules which can be =programmed‘ into the computer. This allowed the children to debug any conflicts between system rules in order to maintain the flow of the game narrative. A second conjecture is that over the Internet children were encouraged to add complexity and innovative elements to their games, not by the addition of socially-constructed or 'player' rules but rather through additional system rules which elaborate the mini-formalism in which they engaged. This shift of attention to system rules occurred at the same time, and perhaps as a result of, a loosening of the game narrative that was a consequence of the remoteness of the interaction

Extremely short duration sprint interval training improves vascular health in older adults

Exercise improves health and physical function in older people, but very few older people participate although the trend is for increasing participation. This study sought to determine whether short duration sprint interval training (SIT) improves health and physical function in older people. Seventeen (9 M and 8 F) older adults (age 66 ± 3 years) were recruited. Participants had blood pressure, physical function and blood lipid profile measured and were then allocated to a control group (CON n = 7) or a SIT group (n = 10). The control group maintained daily activities; the SIT group performed 10 weeks of twice-weekly training sessions of 6-s sprints. By week 10, training sessions lasted 11.6 ± 0.6-min. Ten weeks of SIT resulted in significant changes in pulse pressure (CONpre 59 ± 18 mmHg; CONpost 60 ± 9 mmHg; SITpre 56 ± 14 mmHg; SITpost 49 ± 7 mmHg; p = 0.007), mean blood pressure (CONpre 100 ± 10 mmHg; CONpost 97 ± 11 mmHg; SITpre 102 ± 7 mmHg; SITpost 93 ± 8 mmHg; p = 0.003), timed get up and go (CONpre 6.9 ± 1.1 s; CONpost 6.9 ± 1.0 s; SITpre 7.4 ± 1.2 s; SITpost 6.6 ± 1.0 s; p = 0.005), loaded 50 m walk (CONpre 6.9 ± 1.1 s; CONpost 6.9 ± 1.0 s; SITpre 7.4 ± 1.2 s; SITpost 6.6 ± 1.0 s; p = 0.005),and total cholesterol: HDL cholesterol ratio (CONpre 4.2 ± 0.7; CONpost 4.0 ± 0.7; SITpre 4.4 ± 1.1; SITpost 3.2 ± 0.7; p = 0.01). SIT is an effective way to maintain blood pressure, lipid profile, and physical function during aging and is an effective tool for promoting optimal aging

“This is what I was trying to say”: challenging outcome led documentary filmmaking in higher education

An outcome led approach to learning reflects and helps produce performativity as a key ‘policy technology’ (Ball 2003) in the construction of student and teacher subjectivities. In such assessment procedures, complex social processes of learning are reduced to simplified ‘categories of judgement’ (op cit.). I have been teaching a documentary storytelling module for over five years and I consider documentary filmmaking as one such ‘complex social process’. Students in my classes choose to make films about people, places and issues of importance to them. However, in this teaching, in line with much educational practice, I assess my students’ documentary filmmaking solely in terms of technical, aesthetic and administrative criteria. Reduced to these bullet pointed learning outcome statements, the actual complexity of the cultural, technical and social activity that comprise filmmaking is solidified into a commodified form. The actual lived experience of engaging with others during filmmaking is marginalised, or worse, completely ignored by my current practice. This paper describes action research with my students that aims to understand the emergent learning involved in filmmaking which lies outside a commodified learning outcome approach. Through ‘active inter-views’, the research is opening up a space in which I can engage with my students in meaningful dialogue about their university work freed from the prescriptions of curricular activity. Rather than merely finding out from my students what they’ve learnt, the research encounter is jointly productive for both participants. I argue that such research can contribute to a critical pedagogy through its emphasis on a reconfiguring of teacher and student subjectivities and by recognising the educational significance of documentary filmmaking as an ethical and social act

Mentoring undergraduate civil engineering students

On enrolment at university, undergraduate civil engineering students begin their journey towards a professional career. Associating with graduate engineers throughout their studies provides students with potential role models and assists them to accustom progressively to the industry. Whilst the procurement of guest practitioners to deliver workshops and lectures remains buoyant, opportunities for students to secure summer placements within the civil engineering sector, has been problematic since the 2008 financial crisis. Graduate mentoring of student mentees can help to bridge the shortage of vocational placements. This paper discusses the results from a graduate mentoring initiative involving third year (n=345) civil & environmental engineering (CEE) student mentees, 83 graduate mentors and 31 employers. The results show that the student mentees overwhelmingly support and validate the opportunities that this initiative has provided. On completion of their mentoring meetings, and on return to their fourth year of their studies, the majority of the students commit to making behavioural and attitudinal changes regarding their own continued professional development (CPD)

High intensity training improves health and physical function in middle aged adults

High intensity training (HIT) is effective at improving health; however, it is unknown whether HIT also improves physical function. This study aimed to determine whether HIT improves metabolic health and physical function in untrained middle aged individuals. Fourteen (three male and eleven female) untrained individuals were recruited (control group n = 6: age 42 ± 8 y, weight 64 ± 10 kg, BMI 24 ± 2 kg·m−2 or HIT group n = 8: age 43 ± 8 y, weight 80 ± 8 kg, BMI 29 ± 5 kg·m−2). Training was performed twice weekly, consisting of 10 × 6-second sprints with a one minute recovery between each sprint. Metabolic health (oral glucose tolerance test), aerobic capacity (incremental time to exhaustion on a cycle ergometer) and physical function (get up and go test, sit to stand test and loaded 50 m walk) were determined before and after training. Following eight weeks of HIT there was a significant improvement in aerobic capacity (8% increase in VO2 peak; p < 0.001), physical function (11%–27% respectively; p < 0.05) and a reduction in blood glucose area under the curve (6% reduction; p < 0.05). This study demonstrates for the first time the potential of HIT as a training intervention to improve skeletal muscle function and glucose clearance as we age