18 March 2004 Research Role Gives Added Excitement to University Study

Studying in a research-based environment is what sets university courses apart from many other tertiary programmes.

Lincoln University has a particularly strong research culture, much of it directly related to New Zealand's economy and the industries that underpin it.

"Our students can't help but be influenced by the lively, enquiring atmosphere on the Lincoln campus," says Liaison Officer Tim Edmonds, "and there are heaps of opportunities for exciting research if and when they move on to postgraduate study."

Here's an example of research from Lincoln University that has brought together two great Kiwi loves – horse racing and athletics.

Athletes, you can now take it straight from the horse's mouth, overtraining could be the explanation for your poor performance on race day.

Lincoln University research has investigated overtraining in racehorses as a comparative model for explaining unexpected performance slumps in human middle-distance runners and the findings point to a number of ways the problem can be reduced or avoided.

The researchers, sports scientist Dr Mike Hamlin of Lincoln University's Environment, Society & Design Division and Professor Will Hopkins, formerly of Otago University and now of Auckland University of Technology, say there are similarities between middle-distance runners and Standardbred racehorses.

"Both train and run over similar distances, undergo similar physiological adaptations to training and both 'overtrain' – which is caused by too much physical stress, with other factors such as gender and age also an influence."

From their research on horses and its application to the human situation they have concluded that –

• excessive warm ups may increase the risk of overtraining;

• older athletes may be more at risk of overtraining than younger ones;

• females may be more at risk of overtraining than males;

• athletes with high training duration or high weekly workloads are more likely to suffer from overtraining.

The scientists advise that if equine and human overtraining are similar then coaches need to be aware that there is a point in the training continuum when greater training volume or intensity can result in overtraining rather than improved performance.

Coaches should also monitor female and older athletes more closely for signs of overtraining, they say.

Supported by the New Zealand Equine Research Foundation and Sport Science New Zealand, the research project surveyed 177 randomly selected trainers who gave information on 2345 horses that were in training for at least four weeks.

The survey included questions on warm ups, training duration and intensity, and the frequency and severity of overtraining.

The overall incidence of equine overtraining was 6%.

Overtrained horses were defined as horses that suffered an unexplained and consistent loss of form that lasted for at least two weeks and was not due to tying up, illness or injury.

The study found that horses given long warm ups were twice as likely to overtrain as horses receiving shorter warm ups.

Older horses were 16 times more likely to become overtrained than younger horses, and female horses were more than twice as likely to develop overtraining than male horses. A similar gender difference has been reported in human athletes.

Studies have shown that 48-65% of human athletes experience overtraining at some stage in their careers.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand