Faculty/Staff Detail

Kevin Dames, Kinesiology Department, presented research conducted with former student Cabel McCandless M ’21 and Christopher Aiken from New Mexico State University at the 46th annual meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics held in August in Knoxville, Tenn. The project, “A Battle of Balance: Differences in postural stability among cross-country runners, trail runners, and healthy non-runners,” found trail runners exhibit greater balance control than their cross-country peers and the control group. Improved balance may be an adaptation to chronic training on highly dynamic trail surfaces with uneven contours, unexpected shifting of materials underfoot such as rocks or sand, and frequent changes in step length to accommodate stepping over obstacles.