March 2012 Archives

The Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies (RPLS) program is a dynamic undergraduate program designed to prepare students to enter a professional career in a field that provides individuals, families, and communities the opportunity to develop happy, healthy, and satisfying lifestyles. This holistic approach allows us to examine many disciplines as we explore the motivation of individuals within the four domains of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development across the lifespan--and how people use recreation and leisure in their lives.

This program is designed to provide a strong academic foundation, while using an experiential approach to provide students with the skillsets they will need outside of the classroom in order to move into their career. Field trips, service learning, volunteering, and internships all provide a practical learning environment as students work with professionals in the field. Currently, there are two faculty-led study abroad options to Kenya and Costa Rice, with the goal of adding additional experiences to the program.

Two focus areas, Recreation Administration and Outdoor Recreation, are offered to allow students to individually design their coursework based on their interests and career goals under the guidance of faculty advisers. This approach affords flexibility and specialization within the program.

The Outdoor Recreation focus area is delivered as an immersion semester. This unique program allows students to become fully involved in the Outdoor Recreation experience. Students will study, explore, engage, and learn along with a small cohort of fellow students, allowing for an in-depth immersive experience with a carefully planned curriculum that progressively builds throughout the semester. Hands-on, skill-building opportunities are incorporated into every course. The immersion semester begins with an international experience and ends with a week of leadership development at the beautiful Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Students work side by side with outdoor professionals in a directed study project to gain valuable experience and insight into the field and network with other professionals.

The RPLS program is also proud to present the popular Gopher Adventure Race. This exciting event, open to students, staff, faculty and alumni, and is planned and operated by seven recreation classes as a unique academic learning tool. As students progress through their coursework, they work on different components of the event in order to have an overall comprehensive learning experience by the completion of the program. What are you waiting for? Get involved! Get Outside!

The Human and Sport Performance Lab's (HSPL) cohort of graduate students consistently brings passion to their academic work and research endeavors, often with their research questions inspired by their own participation in sport and physical activity. By drawing on their involvement with physical activity, these graduate students bring unique perspectives to their research experiences. Below you will meet some of the bright HSPL graduate students who are translating their everyday activities into ground-breaking research!

Sam Johnson (Concordia University St. Paul Track and Field Long and Triple Jump Coach): Sam combines his coaching experience and his interest in biomechanics both to help his athletes succeed and to direct his doctoral research towards measures of improving athlete sprint and jump performance.

Laura Roach (Assistant Men's and Women's Track and Field coach and Assistant Men's and Women's Cross Country coach at Hamline University): Actively still competing in track and field meets against her former teammates at Carleton College, as well as her current athletes, Laura's interest in running and the effects that environmental conditions play on an athlete's performance has led her her Master's research to focus on the data collected from the Marathon Training Course (PE 1262) over the past three years.

Chris Lundstrom:A successful runner at Stanford University in the late 1990s, Chris has continued a successful running career as he pursues his Ph.D. In 2012, Chris participated in his third U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston, Texas. Chris uses his running experience to help the students in the Marathon Training Course (PE 1262) fulfill their dreams of completing their first marathon. Chris has led almost 300 students through the entire training process of running a marathon. This spring, Chris is teaching the marathon class for the fourth time with the largest enrollment to date (~100 students). The class will participate in the Eau Claire Marathon on May 6.

Eric Statt (Boy's U17 Soccer Coach with the White Bear Lake Soccer Club): Eric's passion for soccer and public health concerns around physical activity have allowed him to make a unique connection between sport performance and daily physical activity requirements.

Greg Rhodes (Nordic Skiing coach with Sisu Nordic Foundation and Balance Fitness Nordic Ski Team): Greg currently competes in Nordic skiing races as well as cycling, triathlon, and running races. As a coach for junior and adult Nordic skiers, he regularly uses the information he gains from conducting exercise physiology testing in HSPL to help athletes of all abilities reach their goals. Individually, Greg continues to train and race in many different endurance sport activities. Currently, he is preparing for the Ironman triathlon in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 9.

The Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and Exercise Science (LPHES) has a long history of research success dating back to the 1930's and is a national leader in studying human health, nutrition, and disease. It has showcased the work of well-known and seminal researchers such as Ancel Keys, Elsworth Buskirk, Henry Taylor, Henry Blackburn, and Arthur Leon.

Dr. Li Li Ji, Professor and Director of the School of Kinesiology, is humbled to join the above-mentioned group of respected researchers. A world-renowned researcher in Exercise Physiology, he now leads our legendary LPHES, taking on new challenges in promoting research and investigation on the effect of physical activity on human health, nutrition, disease, aging, and in the training of a new generation of graduate and undergraduate students in these areas of national agenda.

Dr. Ji received his Ph.D., in Exercise Physiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and postdoctoral training in the Institute for Enzyme Research. Over the past three decades, his research has focused on the balance between free radical chemicals and antioxidants and how it affects the response and adaptation of skeletal muscle and heart to acute and chronic exercise, and the role that nutrition and aging plays in determining the outcomes. He is an internationally known expert in the gene expression and molecular signaling of antioxidant enzymes and the impact of antioxidant nutrients on body function. Recently, his work has been extended to studying the efficacy of phytochemicals (natural chemicals derived from plants) on human health and performance, especially in women and elderly people. Dr. Ji is continuously searching for new strategies to combat health problems and diseases affecting the human population, such as cardiovascular disorders and sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss). He is currently exploring a technique to inject DNA into muscles in intact animals to boost mitochondrial function and antioxidant defense in aid of recovery from muscle atrophy due to disuse.

The lab recently underwent a major renovation and now offers state-of-the-art facilities for biomedical research in both animal and human exercise physiology and molecular biology.

"It is an honor to be able to carry on this mission," Dr. Ji stated recently. "Moving my laboratory to the University of Minnesota offers new opportunities, and I am looking forward to working together with graduate and undergraduate students and collaborating with faculty and researchers across campus."

You can visit the newly remodeled LPHES in the University Recreation Center, Room 27.