Matching Items (11)
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- All Subjects: kinesiology
- All Subjects: Vinyasa
- Creators: Hoffner, Kristin
Accessing the centre: complementary conditioning & somatic wellness for competitive Irish step dance
Description
This thesis examines the integration of somatic principles into Irish Step Dancing. The researcher conducted a twelve week case study that explored how utilizing the Centre-line Support System in training competitive Irish Step Dancers, through integrating Alexander Technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals of Total Body Connectivity can generate increased height and efficiency in jumping and an improvement in upper-body carriage, while longitudinally reducing the occurrence of over-use injuries. Research occurred between January and March 2012 in Tucson, Arizona and Dublin, Ireland. Additional research and reflection occurred in Belfast, Glasgow, and London, United Kingdom; Limerick, Cork, and Galway, Ireland; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Los Angeles, California.
ContributorsBuck, Helen (Author) / Vissicaro, Pegge (Thesis advisor) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / Jackson, Naomi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This project, which consists of a review article and an applied creative project, proposes mirror neurons as being a physiological mechanism for motor imagery. The review article highlights similarities between motor imagery research and research on mirror neurons. The research is roughly divided into three types of studies: neuroimaging studies, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electromyography (EMG) studies, and electroencephalography (EEG) studies. The review also discusses the associative hypothesis of mirror neuron origin as support for the hypothesis and concludes with an assessment of conflicting research and the limitations of the hypothesis. The applied creative project is an instructional brochure, aimed at anyone who teaches motor skills, such as dance teachers or sports coaches. The brochure takes the academic content of the review and presents it in a visually pleasing, reader-friendly fashion in an effort to educate the intended audience and make the research more accessible. The brochure also prescribes research-based suggestions for how to use motor imagery during teaching sessions and how to get the best benefits from it.
ContributorsNgai, Valerie Christina (Author) / Hoffner, Kristin (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of Assisted Cycle Therapy (ACT) on self-efficacy and exercise perception in older adults with Down syndrome (DS) after a three times a week for 8 weeks intervention. Thirteen participants were in the ACT group in which a motor assisted their cycling to be performed at least 30% faster than voluntary cycling (VC), 11 participants were in the voluntary cycling group and two participants were in the no cycling (NC) group. The results showed that both exercise groups (i.e., ACT and VC) improved in their self-efficacy after the 8 week intervention. In addition, exercise perception improved following ACT and not VC or NC. Our results are discussed with respect to their future implications for exercise in the DS population. It might be that the yielded results were due to differences in effort required by each intervention group as well as the neurotrophic factors that occur when muscle contractions create synaptic connections resulting in improvement in cognition and feelings of satisfaction. In the future, research should focus on the psychological factors such as social accountability and peer interaction as they relate to ACT and physical activity in person's with DS.
ContributorsTucker, Kori Ann (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Arnold, Nathaniel (Committee member) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern in the United States. For several years, many interventions have been established to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity. However, these interventions have not adequately utilized existing models of behavior change, and as a result, have been unsuccessful in increasing levels of physical activity and healthy dietary intake. One such model of change, the Transtheoretical Model, views behavior change as occurring through a series of stages with progression through the stages being facilitated by cognitive and behavioral processes. Within these processes the constructs of consciousness-raising, helping relationships, and self-efficacy have been shown to be most influential in changing behaviors. Thus, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of such constructs and establish a multi-faceted approach to combat this epidemic.
ContributorsWang, Janice (Author) / Broman, Tannah (Thesis director) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / Baldwin, Marjorie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Children's wellbeing has been of utmost concern to society, and recently this topic has taken a particular focus in both health and achievement. As the focus shifts towards promoting a healthier and more academically successful youth, the relationship between the two warrants investigation. Specifically, the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance (i.e. grades) in 4th grade students was assessed. A cross-sectional design was used to assess physical fitness of children (M=9.39 years) by means of the FITNESSGRAM assessment tool. Third-quarter grades were used to measure academic performance. Relationships between the variables were determined through bivariate plots, Pearson product moment correlation analysis, independent t-tests, and a three-step regression analysis. The results show a significant relationship between students' aerobic fitness and academic performance. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest incremental validity between aerobic fitness and academic performance, thus implying predictive value associated with increased physical fitness and academic achievement.
ContributorsMoore, Shannon (Author) / Kulinna, Pamela (Thesis director) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / Stylianou, Michalis (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Many high school students demonstrate an overall lack of interest in science. Traditional teaching methodologies seem to be unsuccessful at engaging students \u2014 one explanation is that students often interpret what they learn in school as irrelevant to their personal lives. Active learning and case based learning methodologies seem to be more effective at promoting interest and understanding of scientific principles. The purpose of our research was to implement a lab with updated teaching methodologies that included an active learning and case based curriculum. The lab was implemented in two high school honors biology classes with the specific goals of: significantly increasing students' interest in science and its related fields; increasing students' self-efficacy in their ability to understand and interpret the traditional process of the scientific method; and increasing this traditional process of objectively understanding the scientific method. Our results indicated that interest in science and its related fields (p = .011), students' self-efficacy in understanding the scientific method (p = .000), and students' objective understanding of the scientific method (p = .000) statistically significantly increased after the lab was administered; however, our results may not be as meaningful as the p-values imply due to the scale of our assessment.
ContributorsCotten, Kathryn (Author) / Hoffner, Kristin (Thesis director) / Stout, Valerie (Committee member) / Lynskey, Jim (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Physical activity has been shown to be effective in primary and secondary prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease (Warburton, Nicol & Bredin, 2006). Women tend to be much less active than males and are henceforth at a greater risk for developing these conditions (Biddle & Mutrie, 2008). This study addresses what impact type of physical activity in adolescence has on adult physical activity levels in the female population. Specifically, the study focuses on coordination and performance activities in adolescence, and how adult physical activity levels compare to both sedentary adolescents and adolescent endurance and ball sport athletes. Ninety-six female participants that were ages 20-29 (N=53) and 30-39 (N=43) were asked to fill out a survey about their adolescent activity levels and their current activity levels. Those participants who identified as participating in coordination and performance activity (N=43) were compared to those who were sedentary (N=14) and then further compared to those who engaged in other types of adolescent activity (N=39). It was determined that coordination and performance activities during adolescence did have a significant effect on frequency of female adult physical activity when compared to their sedentary counterparts (p=0.015). Adolescent endurance and ball sport athletes did tend to have a greater frequency of current activity in adulthood than those involved in coordination and performance activities, which was attributed to a greater frequency of practice per week in those sports. In conclusion, introducing a frequent amount of physical activity the female adolescent enjoys increases their likelihood of frequently engaging in physical activity as an adult.
ContributorsSweig, Amanda Noel (Author) / Roses-Thema, Cynthia (Thesis director) / Broman, Tannah (Committee member) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
This study examines the effectiveness of two modes of exercise on self-efficacy (SE) in adolescents with Down syndrome (DS). Thirty-nine participants were randomly divided into a voluntary cycling group (VC) (i.e., self-selected cadence), an assisted cycling group (ACT) (i.e., at least 30% faster than self-selected cadence accomplished by a motor), or a no exercise group (NC). In each cycling intervention the participant completed 30 minute cycling sessions, three times per week for a total of eight weeks. Two subsets of the Physical Activity and Self Efficacy Survey were administered prior to cycling (i.e., pretest) and after the eight week intervention (i.e., post-test). The results were consistent with the hypothesis that self-efficacy would improve after ACT, however there was not improvement after the VC condition as hypothesized. It was also hypothesized that exercise perception would improve following the ACT intervention; execise perception showed a trend of improvement after ACT, but the data did not reach significance. Limitations include the wide variability of the DS population. This limitation is responsible for the variation in mental age seen in the intervention groups and could be responsible for the non-significance of the exercise perception data. To generalize our results for parents, therapists, teachers, etc., our recommendation is for persons with DS to participate in physical activity that is easy for them at first \u2014 a simplified sport or active game, assisted cycling, brisk walking \u2014 so that they have a positive experience with exercise. Showing individuals with DS that they can be proficient exercisers will likely improve their self-efficacy and motivate them to engage in more PA over time. In conclusion, eight weeks of moderate ACT exercise demonstrated a significant trend for improved self-efficacy in adolescents with DS.
ContributorsWallace, Kellie Carter (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Youngstedt, Shawn (Committee member) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of yoga intensity on stress in a population of college-aged females. Stress has been shown to negatively impact health both physically and mentally, therefore it is imperative that there is a way to combat these negative health effects. Participants included females between the ages of 18-25 who had been participating in physical activity 3-5 days per week (n=11). Stress was measured by a Stress Indicators Questionnaire, which was modified to fit the aim of the study. The yoga classes were displayed through a program called YogaGlo. The data was scored and analyzed with a modified scoring guideline based off of the questionnaire guidelines and with the use of Excel. The results showed that there was a statistically significant effect of both low (p value= 0.02) and high (p value= 0.01) intensity yoga on stress. There was not a statistically significant effect between yoga intensity on stress (p value= 0.3). The results from this study should be used for further research on yoga and various aspects of mental health, such as anxiety and depression, with a female population of all ages.
Psychological stress is thought to arise from appraisal processes that ascribe threat-related meaning to experiences that tax or exceed our coping ability (Gianaros & Wager, 2015). Gianaros & Wager (2015) found that there is a positive correlation between brain-body pathways which link psychological stress and physical health. The stress response includes sympathetic nervous system activation, which is equitable to the fight-or-flight response and increases heart rate and blood pressure (Al’Absi et al., 2016). Stress affects multiple physiological systems including the immune and reproductive systems. Cardiovascular disease is one of the main risks of prolonged stress, with research indicated an association between stress and a significant increased risk of cardiovascular disease (Backe et al., 2012; Rosengren et al., 2004). With cardiovascular disease being a main contributor to illness and death in the United States, it is crucial that the disease is prevented or treated.
Psychological stress is thought to arise from appraisal processes that ascribe threat-related meaning to experiences that tax or exceed our coping ability (Gianaros & Wager, 2015). Gianaros & Wager (2015) found that there is a positive correlation between brain-body pathways which link psychological stress and physical health. The stress response includes sympathetic nervous system activation, which is equitable to the fight-or-flight response and increases heart rate and blood pressure (Al’Absi et al., 2016). Stress affects multiple physiological systems including the immune and reproductive systems. Cardiovascular disease is one of the main risks of prolonged stress, with research indicated an association between stress and a significant increased risk of cardiovascular disease (Backe et al., 2012; Rosengren et al., 2004). With cardiovascular disease being a main contributor to illness and death in the United States, it is crucial that the disease is prevented or treated.
ContributorsEdwards, Christina Nicole (Co-author) / Sydenham, Isabella (Co-author) / Hoffner, Kristin (Thesis director) / Nolan, Nicole (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of yoga intensity on stress in a population of college-aged females. Stress has been shown to negatively impact health both physically and mentally, therefore it is imperative that there is a way to combat these negative health effects. Participants included females between the ages of 18-25 who had been participating in physical activity 3-5 days per week (n=11). The subjects participated in two sessions of yoga, one of lower intensity, Hatha, and one of higher intensity, Vinyasa. Stress was measured by a Stress Indicators Questionnaire, which was modified to fit the aim of the study. It was filled out by the subjects pre and post each session, resulting in four questionnaires per subject. The yoga classes were displayed through a program called YogaGlo. The data was scored and analyzed with a modified scoring guideline based off of the questionnaire guidelines and with the use of Excel. The results showed that there was a statistically significant effect of both low (p value= 0.02) and high (p value= 0.01) intensity yoga on stress. There was not a statistically significant effect between the different yoga intensities on stress (p value= 0.3). Limitations of our study include a self-selective population, no control group, and demand characteristics. The results from this study should be used for further research on yoga and various aspects of mental health, such as anxiety and depression, with a female population of all ages, longer yoga sessions, and a longitudinal study format.
ContributorsSydenham, Isabella Anne (Co-author) / Edwards, Christina (Co-author) / Hoffner, Kristin (Thesis director) / Nolan, Nicole Blaize (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05