Assoc. Prof. Dr. G. BALASEKARAN
President, Asian Council of Exercise & Sports Science (ACESS)
National Institute of Education (NIE)
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Singapore
Assoc Prof. Dr. G. Balasekaran is an Associate Professor at the Physical Education & Sports Science academic group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research projects include physiological responses in exercise and adaptations to health and sports performance, also investigating the influence of genetic factors on exercise related outcomes. He is currently actively involved in investigating physiological predictors of human performance. In addition, he is very well versed in the knowledge of sports science and its application in track & field. Dr Bala obtained his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, USA and did his Post-Doctoral fellowship in molecular genetics in the same University. He has published many research papers, abstracts, proceedings papers and book chapters in mostly first rated journals and books in the area of Sports Science. His involvement in the international and local scene is extensive as epitomized by his involvement with a number of Sports Science, Physical Education and Sport management associations. Currently he is the President of ACESS. Dr Bala had represented Singapore in numerous long distance running events and had excelled and won numerous medals in various international and local meets. He had also raced in the various States and Regional College meets in the USA, most notably qualified, and raced in the prestigious National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cross-country championships in USA at Humboldt University. Currently he is a volunteer coach, coaching national long distance athletes – coached athletes to national records. He was also a member of the Singapore Brain Breaks project in collaboration with Fuhua Primary School and now currently working with other primary schools to make it a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSGD) laboratory in Singapore.
Athletes often look for safe ergogenic aids to implement during their training and competitions. This presentation will look into various studies conducted that have showed significant differences between the ergogenic aids and placebos. These studies include precooling (cooling method used prior to exercise), deep heat, compression tights (AquaTitan) and soda beverage (Coca-Cola). Healthy adults who exercised regularly participated in the studies mentioned above. Precooling: Precooling with towel dipped in ice was administered during the experimental trial prior to warm up. Participants completed an intermittent sprinting protocol (ISP) for both experimental and control trials. Deep heat: Participants applied deep heat during the experimental trial prior to protocol. They completed a time-to-exhaustion cycling protocol during the experimental and control trials. Compression tights (AquaTitan): Participants completed randomized, double-randomized, double-blinded, counterbalanced trials – AquaTitan tights and placebo tights during 50 meters and 200 meters outdoor track events. Soda beverage (Coca-Cola): Participants completed a repeated measure design study consisting of 3 sessions – Cycling maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) test, followed by experimental session (Coca-Cola) and placebo session (placebo beverage) during constant cycling at 60% VO2max until volitional exhaustion. All studies except soda beverage showed significant improvements in performance during the experimental trials as compared to the placebo trials. However, Coca-Cola showed significant improvement in rate of perceived exertion as compared to placebo soda. Results from these studies have indicated that athletes, sports practitioners and/or sports enthusiasts may implement these various methods to improve their sporting performance (sprint and endurance).