1.2: Modern Kinesiology

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative research.
2. How do scientists and the general public interact differently with data?
3. Understand the power of social media for better or worse.

Kinesiology has developed into a wide-ranging scientific field, just check out the table of contents of this textbook. Today kinesiologists have powerful tools and a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, but some modern trends like social media are a double-edged sword. In this chapter, we will explore the current issues and trends in kinesiology.

As discussed in the previous chapter, kinesiology has a long history of combining war, medicine, and sports. During the mid-1900s an unfortunate stereotype developed that kinesiology was only about grade school physical education classes. Kinesiology has always encompassed so much more than that, but grade school physical education is still a noble and necessary career.

Each chapter in this textbook will summarize the many branches of specification possible in kinesiology from Biomechanics (Chapter 8) to Psychology and Sociology of Sport (Chapter 14) and many more. Modern kinesiology is immense and continually growing. Kinesiology has a promising future and many opportunities for education and a career.

Kinesiology is a natural science backed by qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research generally has to do with gathering non-numerical data, including subjective feelings or opinions on a topic. Quantitative research gathers numerical data to test relationships between two variables like a person's height and 500m row time. All science and scientific research is the pursuit of understanding the truth of the world around us. Kinesiology research is scientific curiosity about the way the human body moves and performs in physical (usually athletic) ways.

Most scientific fields are currently facing problems with public credibility and the general population's understanding or believing any significant results. The lack of public credibility comes from several overlapping problems not unique to kinesiology but is something that any modern kinesiologist will have to deal with in their career.

In America, most scientific research follows a predictable pattern of following the scientific method of testing an idea and then publishing the results. While this method has its advantages, there are a few major issues with scientific research being published by subject-specific journals.

Highly educated individuals in a narrow subject matter write up complicated research methods and results to be reviewed by their peers, to be published, read and understood by their peers. Article publication requires specific formatting with concise language use to convey complex topics in as efficient a way as possible. Meaning that if a person does not have a high level of education in the field of research write-up, they are unlikely to be able to understand it.

Critical Thinking

Take a look at this research article here on balance training for preventing falls in older adults. How much of it do you understand? Could you read this over and explain to your grandmother with confidence what exercises she should start doing to improve her balance and decrease her risk of falling? Do you think your grandmother could read it and understand it?

The present problem is that most people are not taught how to read research articles (Chapter 15) and understand important information. Not to mention how to evaluate if the methods the scientists used, and the statistics performed are even valid choices to reach the conclusions of the publication. Hopefully, at the end of your kinesiology education, you can read that same article on older adults’ balance and quickly understand it.

That article has terms, acronyms, and ideas it assumes the reader understands, quickly speeding through concepts that take years to understand and master. Unfortunately, that article is a very average representation of research studies and highlights how hard it is for someone without a college education to understand. A topic like balance and fall injuries impacts all people and their families and significant findings should be made more approachable to the general public.

Most of the time the general public is not aware of new research publications unless it “goes viral '' or has some very controversial conclusions that go against commonly held beliefs.

Unfortunately, if the news journalist or reporter is not highly educated in the area of the research they are reporting on, leading to them taking a single line of the research article and using that for the entire story, not explaining any of the other details, or oversimplifying the results. Imagine this “Tonight on the 5 o’clock news we share with you a new scientific finding that eating salmon can double your risk of dying of a stroke!” But what the news did not share was that the people in the study were asked to eat salmon 3 times a day for 2 months (so very unlikely to be someone’s normal diet), and it did double their risk of dying by a stroke from a risk of 1 in a 100,000 to 2 in a 100,00. Statistically, that did double their risk of death from my stroke, but a very small risk doubled, is still a very small risk.

That takes a lot of the strength out of the story and shows how problematic the media can be for misrepresenting scientific findings.

To make matters worse, many taxpayer-funded research findings are published behind a paywall, meaning anyone that wants to read and learn from the research needs to pay for access, fortunately this is slowly changing. Funding is also limited and can be hard to attain, forcing a scientist into a grant writer and finance manager. The ethics of receiving money for research also can be difficult to navigate. Coca Cola donates to scientific research in a wide variety of categories, but when science is funded by a private company can the results be trusted? Often research publications have an area to explain any possible conflicts of interests between the scientists, results, and funding or private interests. If a research article is published on the health effects of drinking soda, but the research is funded by Coca Cola, would you trust the results?

A great resource to save for your upcoming kinesiology education is PubMed, this website is a free-to-use search tool for research in the life sciences. There is also a way to search for only free-to-view articles. We will review how to read and evaluate a complete research article in Chapter 15.

Oftentimes scientific journals are not interested in publishing non-novel research. So very few published research articles are reproduced by other scientists, because their work is not likely to be published, as “this has already been done”. So results are not often verified. Meaning someone’s findings could be a fluke. Even worse, many times when research is reproduced the same findings and conclusions are not made. This is known as the “Replication Crisis”. This is a massive hurdle that all the sciences are facing and will have to solve in the near future. The statistics and methodological issues of the Replication Crisis are out of the realm of the scope of this textbook, but you should learn much more about this in your education, especially statistics and kinesiology methodology classes.

Scientific journals usually won't publish null findings, meaning no difference in the treatment and control group was discovered. These results could still be important discoveries. Maybe there was no difference between barbell squats and leg presses on quad strength improvement over a 6-week training program. This shows null results but is actually important information if true. Publishing well-run research that leads to null results also makes it less likely someone else will repeat the study and find null results. How many people have had the same question, spent months on research only to find null results and just delete their data because it is very unlikely to be published.

Here is a great guide on what to look for when reviewing research articles for quality (or not so quality) scientific research.

Critical Thinking

How do you think scientific research, funding, publication, and readability could be improved?

Science is ever-changing with improvements in research tools and equipment. As you will learn throughout this textbook kinesiology is a convergence of many fields, and if there is a fundamental change in thinking or an impactful discovery made in those adjacent fields it can impact thought and understanding in kinesiology.

A kinesiologist uses a wide range of powerful equipment in research including but not limited to computers, lasers, cameras, gas exchange sensors, and force plates. As technology improves and more detailed data can be recorded, old “truths” may be overturned. Imagine how the understanding of the human foot strike on the ground has improved with cameras, then high definition, and slow motion. It is expected that scientific understanding will continue to improve and be refined as associated technology improves.

As nutrition (Chapter 4) has advanced, there has been a classic debate on if eggs, especially the yolk is healthy for humans to eat. The answer to this question changes based on the year and who you ask. This type of reversal on topics can lead to the general public feeling that they cannot trust science, because how can they trust you with complicated questions if you cannot even tell them if eggs are healthy to eat or not?

Social Media, the Good, Bad, and Ugly.

The good: social media is a powerful and cheap tool for spreading your knowledge, helping people, and advertising any business you might be a part of. Social media can build community and allow someone to solidify a reputation of knowledge and experience.

The bad: social media allows anyone to post just about anything without any fact-checking or credentials. So many people are forming opinions on what is good for them based on what an attractive shirtless guy is saying, and assuming he is speaking facts because “Look how fit he is!” Most people do not understand that there are very few simple answers in kinesiology. Even the most basic concepts of writing a training program require knowing their goals, how much time they can commit to training, what exercises they like to do, what equipment they have available to them, and their current fitness. People are unique, they have different injuries, goals, interests, and nutritional preferences making all aspects of kinesiology more complex than a one size fits all pill. Just because it works for an “attractive shirtless guy” on social media does not mean it will work for anyone else.

The ugly: Building off the bad, people can make a lot of money praying on others' lack of education and insecurities. Social media can be rampant with misinformation, fake reviews, bought likes and followers and scams to steal people's money.

You will be fighting against all of this in the world of modern kinesiology.

Critical Thinking

How can you help inform people of the value of scientific knowledge while also accepting there will also be room for change in ideas?

It is not all negative, kinesiologists have changed the world of health, fitness, and athletic performance in the last century through careful examination of human movement.

There are many new topics to tackle in the upcoming years as kinesiologists including national weight gain, social and racial inequality, continuing advancement for disabled athletes, and navigating how to fairly include trans athletes in sports competitions.

As Western culture continues to become more sedentary, the need for kinesiologists to help people stay active and healthy has never been greater.

Figure 2: by CDC is in the Public Domain, CC0

Many jobs and careers have less physical labor or activity than in the past. There are more jobs completed entirely seated behind a computer, leading to very little physical activity for workers. Combined with the rise in fast food consumption (article here) has increased the prevalence of US obesity (Figure 2). 8 hour days at a computer are increasing rates of poor posture and low back pain, creating a demand for physical therapists to fix the problem and biomechanics to solve with better chairs or desks.

Obesity increases all-cause mortality (death from any disease) especially cardiovascular disease and leads to an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The cultural trends of being sedentary and eating poorly have pushed cardiovascular disease to the #1 spot for the cause of death for Americans. The role of kinesiologists in counteracting this problem is critical for the future health of America.

Modern and future practitioners of kinesiology have to deal with socioeconomic and racial inequality in health and sport. Having access to fitness equipment and coaching can be expensive, and not available to all. Life expectancy in America varies based on race, with some reasons directly related to kinesiology and wellness like access to healthy foods, medical appointments, and the opportunity to participate in an active lifestyle. Having the time and money to devote to working out and eating healthy can be a privilege that excludes the poor.

Sport and race have an entwined history of inequality. Historically the NFL has had very underrepresented Black quarterbacks, with about 70% of NFL players being Black but only about 25% of starting quarterbacks being Black. The racial divide goes further with many sports announcers commenting on a Black quarterback's success due to their athletic abilities while White quarterbacks are often praised for their intelligence.

Figure 3: by CDC is in the Public Domain, CC0

With 26% of the adult American population having some type of disability it is important to be inventive on how to include all people in activities and sports. Creativity and new technology can go a long way to include people that once thought sports were out of reach for them. Here is a video showing how blind athletes can play baseball.

A relatively new issue in the kinesiology and sports community is how to fairly integrate transgender athletes into a competitive field. While this text is being written different sports and leagues have different inclusion/ban rules, and those will likely have changed by the time you are reading this.

Critical Thinking

How would you motivate more people to be healthy and active? How would you address the inequality of sport due to race, socioeconomic status, disability, or sexual identity?

Chapter 3 will continue the discussion of health and fitness and for the rest of the textbook, each chapter will look in detail at different branches of kinesiology. It is possible to earn degrees or certifications in each of these branches leading to a wide variety of modern kinesiology career options.