1/25/2008
Exploring the 'Ahh'
$1 million grant advances aquatic exercise research
By Julie Titone
PULLMAN, Wash.—Thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Swimming Pool Foundation, two Washington State University researchers will continue to explore the benefits of aquatic exercise, which range from improving athletic performance to fighting obesity.
“Water affects our
hearts, lungs and endocrine systems,” said Dr.
Bruce Becker, a physician and a research professor at
WSU’s College of Education.
Becker and Assistant Professor Kasee Hildenbrand want to find ways to make the most of aquatic exercise. How long should a person stay in the water? How warm or cold should the water be?
The National Swimming Pool Foundation has supported the aquatic therapy research for three years. Its latest grant will pay for staff and equipment, allowing the researchers to create a National Aquatics and Sports Medicine Institute -- which, Becker said, will establish WSU as the nation's premiere center for aquatics research. “There is no other lab with this mission and focus. The addition of the $1 million grant gives us tremendous movement forward.”
Hildenbrand teaches in the College of Education’s movement studies program and directs its athletic training education program. She and Becker conduct their research in what is now called the National Aquatics and Sports Medicine Laboratory, located in the Bohler Gym Addition. Their first respiratory study compared the effects of exercise on land to exercise in the water. The subjects were students of varying body fat, weight and fitness levels.
“We’ll be adding brain wave variables next year, and working with Tim Freson on asthmatics and aquatic exercise,” said Hildenbrand. Freson is associate director of research at WSU’s Health and Wellness Services.
The research piques the interest of many students. “We have no trouble finding students interested in sitting in the tub,” said Hildenbrand. The lab will be looking for non-student research subjects, too, as the researchers examine the impact of aquatic rehabilitation on such medical conditions as asthma, hypertension, osteoporosis and obesity.
Hildenbrand plans to incorporate the aquatics lab research findings into WSU’s undergraduate athletic training program, so its graduates have a sound scientific basis for the exercise advice they give to clients. As it is, a lot of advice given in the sports world is not evidence-based. For example, Becker said, football players spend time in chiller tanks after practice because they say it makes their legs feel better.
“I have a gut feeling it works, but there
is no science looking into the physical effects of
standing waist-deep in 52-degree water for 45
minutes,” he said. “We can measure things
like blood flow, muscle oxygen delivery, and other
measures that can really make chiller tank immersion
more beneficial.”
Becker’s goal goes far beyond educating the
athletic community.
“We need medical professionals to understand and use the benefits of aquatic therapy. And the public needs to know, because you can safely do it on your own,” he said. He imagines Oprah telling the world about the benefits of water exercise.
Becker first became excited about aquatic rehabilitation when he worked in Eugene, Ore., and saw how it much it helped injured Olympic runners. But he was dismayed that there had been little research into its effects since before astronauts were sent into space. “Immersion is as close to weightlessness as there is on Earth,” he said.
In the last 30 years, he has written and lectured extensively on the subject. In April 2007, he retired from his Spokane clinical practice in order to devote full-time to research.
A longtime master swimmer, Becker is fascinated by the mental as well as physical benefits of immersion.
“Water exercise rivals meditation,” he said. “You feel good, better than you do with other exercise. I want to find out what that ‘aaah’ is about.”
For more information, contact: Bruce Becker, (509) 844-4155, beckerb@wsu.edu; Kasee Hildenbrand, (509) 335-8834, khildenbrand@wsu.edu; or Laurie Batter for the National Swimming Pool Foundation, (760) 438-9304, batterup@batterupproductions.com.