Charles Sturt University human movement researchers, Dr Derek Kay and PhD student Jack Cannon have been short listed for next month’s award after independent reviews of their research abstracts.

Mr Cannon’s research has important implications for improving the quality of life in older women. Using electrical stimulation, the research assessed the effect of age on muscle function.

By stimulating muscles directly, he was able to remove the other outside influences that impact on muscle power output such as brain and nerves. 

He found that the ability of muscles in older women to develop force and power decreased with age, as it took longer for muscles to relax after contracting. 

Mr Cannon hopes his ongoing research will show that this decline in muscle strength can be averted through strength training.

“Older women are able to activate their muscles to the same degree as younger people, it is just that power is diminished,” he said.

“As women live longer than men, they are increasingly susceptible to falls and mobility problems. Following on from the initial research which has been nominated for the award, I am assessing whether strength training for older women may go part of the way to reversing age related muscle decline,” he said. 

Similarly, Dr Kay’s research also involves investigating how muscles work, by looking at how they are controlled by the brain. Studying the impact of heavy exercise on elite cyclists, Dr Kay and his team assessed the difference between the theoretical maximum power to which leg muscles could work, and the muscle power actually produced by the cyclists. 

He found that the brain isolates fatigued muscles, thereby decreasing its ability to produce power. For example, in the cyclists, power output from leg muscles decreased after heavy exercise, but arm muscles, which were impacted by similar levels of rising body heat, were not affected. 

Both Dr Kay and Mr Cannon will present their research findings during the European College of Sport Science Conference in Austria, which begins on Wednesday 9 July. The winner is announced at the end of the conference. The judging is based on presentation and the researcher’s grasp of their subject, based on audience questioning. 

The European College of Sport Science Young Investigator Award is open to researchers aged under 35, who have no PhD, or have held a PhD for less than five years.