ECU Sports Science Students Take Part in World’s First Fatigue Research for Tropical Climate

22 March 2009- A cohort of Edith Cowan University’s Sports Science students got a hands-on experience with what they had learnt through a research conducted during the Aviva Singapore 70.3 Ironman triathlon.

Partnering with the Singapore Sports Council and Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand), the research was to improve understanding into why humans fatigue during exercise.

“We all know that fatigue is experienced when we exercise? mentions Edith Cowan University’s Associate Professor Paul Laursen, “but what we know less of is how fatigue is exacerbated when exercise is performed in conditions of high heat and humidity?

Using Polar heart rate monitors and foot-pods to measure heart rate and running speed, along with ingestible telemetric core temperature pills that the volunteers swallowed, the experiment was the first to examine how core body temperature influenced the fatigue experience during a half-Ironman triathlon in the tropics.