title: Hyperthermic resistance training in semi-professional rugby athletes

authors: Miles, Cory Gene

subjects: environmental chamber

abstract: Resistance training muscle adaptations may be enhanced under increased environmental temperatures (>30 °C). Training in the heat has been widely used to enhance performance adaptations in a range of populations from untrained to elite-athletes. Environmental heat stress is used to provide an additional training stimulus to the individual to potentiate greater physiological adaptations and subsequent athletic performance. Chapter One of this thesis reviews the current literature on different methods of thermal stress and how it could be implemented for preparation of rugby union athletes. Chapter Two of this thesis includes an original investigation whereby 18 elite, semi-professional rugby union athletes (age [mean ± SD], 22.2 ± 3.5 years; body mass 99.6 ± 11.5 kg; height 187.6 ± 6.4cm) performed a three-week resistance training intervention (12 sessions) where they were randomly allocated into two groups: HEAT (n = 8) with all lower-body resistance training sessions performed in environmental conditions maintained at 35 °C and 37% relative humidity (RH), or CON (n = 10) where the same training was performed in temperate conditions (21 °C and 45% RH). Pre and post-training intervention tests included measures of strength, power, endurance, speed, and body mass. When comparing groups, small effect sizes were found in favour of HEAT for the back squat (d = 0.26) and bench press (d = 0.23). All other measures were associated with trivial or unclear effects. A significant group x time interaction for body mass, associated with a trivial effect size (d = 0.19, HEAT +1.5 kg; CON -0.8 kg). Resistance training in the heat may lead to small improvements in lower and upper body strength compared to the identical training programme performed in temperate conditions. Utilization of heat stress during specific strength training sessions may prove to be a beneficial strategy to increase muscle adaptions for rugby union athletes.

text: Hyperthermic resistance training in semi-professional rugby athletes Resistance training muscle adaptations may be enhanced under increased environmental temperatures (>30 °C). Training in the heat has been widely used to enhance performance adaptations in a range of populations from untrained to elite-athletes. Environmental heat stress is used to provide an additional training stimulus to the individual to potentiate greater physiological adaptations and subsequent athletic performance. Chapter One of this thesis reviews the current literature on different methods of thermal stress and how it could be implemented for preparation of rugby union athletes. Chapter Two of this thesis includes an original investigation whereby 18 elite, semi-professional rugby union athletes (age [mean ± SD], 22.2 ± 3.5 years; body mass 99.6 ± 11.5 kg; height 187.6 ± 6.4cm) performed a three-week resistance training intervention (12 sessions) where they were randomly allocated into two groups: HEAT (n = 8) with all lower-body resistance training sessions performed in environmental conditions maintained at 35 °C and 37% relative humidity (RH), or CON (n = 10) where the same training was performed in temperate conditions (21 °C and 45% RH). Pre and post-training intervention tests included measures of strength, power, endurance, speed, and body mass. When comparing groups, small effect sizes were found in favour of HEAT for the back squat (d = 0.26) and bench press (d = 0.23). All other measures were associated with trivial or unclear effects. A significant group x time interaction for body mass, associated with a trivial effect size (d = 0.19, HEAT +1.5 kg; CON -0.8 kg). Resistance training in the heat may lead to small improvements in lower and upper body strength compared to the identical training programme performed in temperate conditions. Utilization of heat stress during specific strength training sessions may prove to be a beneficial strategy to increase muscle adaptions for rugby union athletes.

year: 2018

title: Book Review: The good and evil serpent: How a universal symbol became christianized – by James H. Charlesworth

authors: Simms, Norman

subjects: book review

abstract: The article reviews the book “The good and evil serpent: How a universal symbol became christianized” – by James H. Charlesworth.

text: Book Review: The good and evil serpent: How a universal symbol became christianized – by James H. Charlesworth The article reviews the book “The good and evil serpent: How a universal symbol became christianized” – by James H. Charlesworth.

year: 2012

title: Place imaginaries: Photography and place-making at Te Awa River Ride

authors: Hill, Rodrigo

subjects: photography

abstract: Contemporary photographic practice has evolved into a field of possibilities, which includes a flux of representational modes that depict experiences, feelings and emotions. This PhD with Creative Practice Components investigates how photography is embedded within ways of knowing, experiencing and making places and the subsequent visual constructions of place imaginaries.  Drawing on contemporary photographic practice and theory, I position myself as a qualitative researcher engaged in creative practice, specifically lens-based approaches and modes of photographic representation. In contrast to photography’s dominant discourse centred on indexical and objective assumptions, I understand photographic practices and images as constructions of multiple meanings.

I use Te Awa River Ride as my research locale, a place where different practices and discourses entangle, forming a diverse set of dynamic and intersecting meanings. Te Awa River Ride is a shared pathway, with a planned total length of 70 kilometres, that edges the banks of the Waikato River from Ngāruawāhia to Cambridge, in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. I understand Te Awa River Ride as a place-composite, layered by multiple place imaginaries, including indigenous Māori, Pākehā and European ways of meaning and place-making. In this thesis I draw upon place imaginaries as a way of expressing visual possibilities, constructions and affective responses to my own and others’ experiences at this unique research location. 

My photography practice aims to actualise particular place imaginaries through curation and sequencing of lens-based explorations of light, movement and water. This process and the compilation of imagery into curatorial products, such as photography installations, generate novel ways of perceiving the Waikato River and Te Awa River Ride, revealing the centrality of photography in place-making processes.

text: Place imaginaries: Photography and place-making at Te Awa River Ride Contemporary photographic practice has evolved into a field of possibilities, which includes a flux of representational modes that depict experiences, feelings and emotions. This PhD with Creative Practice Components investigates how photography is embedded within ways of knowing, experiencing and making places and the subsequent visual constructions of place imaginaries.  Drawing on contemporary photographic practice and theory, I position myself as a qualitative researcher engaged in creative practice, specifically lens-based approaches and modes of photographic representation. In contrast to photography’s dominant discourse centred on indexical and objective assumptions, I understand photographic practices and images as constructions of multiple meanings.

I use Te Awa River Ride as my research locale, a place where different practices and discourses entangle, forming a diverse set of dynamic and intersecting meanings. Te Awa River Ride is a shared pathway, with a planned total length of 70 kilometres, that edges the banks of the Waikato River from Ngāruawāhia to Cambridge, in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. I understand Te Awa River Ride as a place-composite, layered by multiple place imaginaries, including indigenous Māori, Pākehā and European ways of meaning and place-making. In this thesis I draw upon place imaginaries as a way of expressing visual possibilities, constructions and affective responses to my own and others’ experiences at this unique research location. 

My photography practice aims to actualise particular place imaginaries through curation and sequencing of lens-based explorations of light, movement and water. This process and the compilation of imagery into curatorial products, such as photography installations, generate novel ways of perceiving the Waikato River and Te Awa River Ride, revealing the centrality of photography in place-making processes.

year: 2019