Grove City College Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Dr. Jeffrey Buxton’s dissertation will be published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, a leading scientific publication in the strength and conditioning/fitness industry.
Buxton is the lead author of “The Effects of a Novel Quadrupedal Movement Training Program on Functional Movement, Range of Motion and Muscular Strength and Endurance.” Based on research Buxton conducted at the College with his colleagues and students, the paper is to be published later this year.
Quadrupedal movement (QMT) training is a form of bodyweight training gaining recent popularity in fitness industry. It generally involves training with the hands in contact with ground, with movements and poses often mimicking those of animal movements. Crawling exercises such as “bear crawls, “crab walks”, “inchworms,” etc. are common in most systems.
“With the rise in popularity, commercially available QMT systems have emerged, with each claiming benefits backed by anecdotal evidence and sound physiological theory, but not officially validated in scientific research,” Buxton said.
Buxton’s project, one of the first to look at various fitness benefits of QMT, involved two groups of student volunteers. One maintained normal physical fitness routines and the other added QMT two days a week to those routines for the eight week trial. It found significantly greater improvements in flexibility and functional movement scores for the QMT group.
Exercise Science is one of the fastest growing disciplines at Grove City College. Student-faculty research is a hallmark of the accredited program, as is collaboration and cross-disciplinary study. Much of the research is conducted in the department’s human performance laboratory, which features state-of-the-art equipment.
“We do a lot of research. Research is part of every exercise science major’s experience at Grove City College,” Buxton said. “It’s varied and based on each faculty member’s area of interest, but we work together on each other’s projects.”
Buxton worked with Dr. Phil Prins, chair of the College’s Exercise Science Department, Dr. Gary Welton, professor of Phsychology, and students, including Adam Atwell, Gretchen Elsey and Tirzah Talampas. Drs. Mike Miller from Western Michigan University, and Tony Moreno from Eastern Michigan University, are also co-authors of the paper.
For more about Exercise Science at Grove City College, visit www.gcc.edu/exer.