Reagan Hunter: A Portal to a New World
Research is often glamorized as this process of devising a ground-breaking idea, designing a study to prove it, and sharing your amazing findings with the world. During my senior year, I was excited to show others the significance of my own “ground-breaking idea”.
I conducted an independent research study at Lander University where I studied the acute effects of a warmup protocol involving an underrated exercise called the Nordic Hamstring Curl on vertical jumping. As a student athlete, I had noticed numerous correlations between enhancements in my own vertical jump performances and the presence of this exercise in my warmup on the same day to the point that I no longer believed the correlations to be mere coincidences. This first sparked my interest in designing the study under the supervision of Jeff Barfield Ph. D.
My research process began with a deep delve into the depths of academic databases to explore all current literature on the correlations between my variables of interest. This months-long process allowed me to write an extensive literature review which has become one of my proudest works produced during my time at Lander. After completing this tedious process that allowed me to discover some bigger picture concepts like the individual and overlapping kinematics and biomechanical roles of the musculature involved in both of these movements, I was able to design and conduct a randomized controlled repeated measures study comparing the effects of a warmup protocol utilizing the Nordic hamstring curl to the effects of a protocol excluding it. Dependent variables of interest included vertical jump height, flight time, and peak electromyography activity of the involved muscles.
After completing the lengthy literature review phase and the fun data collection part where I got to interact with human subjects and actually see my ideas put into practice, I moved into the data analysis portion of the study. This was by far the most frustrating, time consuming, and mind-numbing portion. Some of my days would consist of hours in isolation sitting in what I called my “cave” in the biomechanics laboratory while staring at a computer screen to motion mark my numerous trials.
Above is my “cave” where I spent countless hours analyzing data and diving into the darkest corners of PubMed. This involved breaking down lengthy articles seemingly written in a foreign language (like what is a VAS-SREMG?!) in hopes of finding just one piece of information to add to the puzzle in my literature review.
My cave may have seemed like a dark place isolated from the outside world both literally and metaphorically, but it is where I was first immersed into this world filled with endless possibilities for expanding knowledge that is essential to the world I do know.
There was no glamour to be found in the frustrating process of sifting through articles and analyzing data, but surely it was coming in the incredible results I was going to produce… right?
This was not the case. I still clearly remember the crushing feeling in my chest when I received the news from Dr. Barfield that my results had come back statistically insignificant. All the hours of work and sacrifice I had put into this project hit me like a truck. However, sensing my disappointment, Dr. Barfield wisely told me that, “no matter the results, there is always something significant going on”. The data collected always shows something that contributes to a better overall understanding of the big picture relationship between the variables of interest, whether or not that relationship is statistically significant, and in turn contributes to the expansion of knowledge on that given subject.
It may seem cliché to say that the beauty of research lies in the process, but that doesn’t make it any less true. This process of discovery is much more precious than the outcome, and a project is never a failure even when the statistics say otherwise. Confounding variables like faulty equipment, human subjects, and small sample size likely played a role in the results, but even if they didn’t, this study opened doors and offered guidance and direction for future studies to pursue.
This satisfaction that I have made a contribution to the greater body of evidence in the scientific community is glamorous itself, even if my idea may never receive recognition or accolades.
My “cave” was like a portal to a new world. I was able to experience the comradery of this research world when collaborating and sharing information with peers in my department as well as interacting with students and faculty of other disciplines when presenting at the SC Upstate Research Symposium and Lander Academic Symposium.
The research world is a community of which it is a privilege to be a member since we all have a common goal of expanding the knowledge and resources available to all people. Researchers are the pioneers who get ideas rolling even if they never receive proper recognition for their work and run into failure after failure.
I have always been interested in pursuing research as part of my future career and, although this project gave me doubts at times, my submersion into the important work of this world has given me a deep appreciation for it and caused this desire to continue to shine through in the end.
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Reagan Hunter is from Fort Mill, SC. She will graduate in May 2023 from the Honors College with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science with an emphasis in pre-PT. She conducted undergraduate research within the Department of Physical Education and Exercise Science with Dr. Jeff Barfield. After graduation, she will attend graduate school at the University of South Florida to receive her Doctoral Degree in Physical Therapy.