Offset loading is a form of strength training where one side of the body has a higher weight load than the other side (e.g., unequal loads), increasing overall skeletal muscle strength and hypertrophy. The RISE Lab Offset Loading Project aims to (1) determine the effects of loading training stimulus on the oscillatory connectivity between the brain and the untrained skeletal muscle, (2) determine the effects of offset loading training stimulus on the oscillatory connectivity between the brain areas in adults, and (3) determine the effects of offset loading training stimulus on cognitive ability.
The Family Health Education Program focuses on improving healthy lifestyle behaviors of Special Olympics athletes and their caregivers. Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at great risk for many health complications and comorbidities. The RISE Lab team has implemented an 8-week intervention program for these individuals in order to support healthy lifestyle change. We work with children, adolescents, teens, and adults with intellectual disabilities. Their caregivers may be anyone from a parent or sibling to a group home staff member or Special Olympics coach. For our pilot study, we took this intervention to Special Olympics Colorado and Vermont with more stops to come. Our team hopes to continue to instill positive communication and change within this underserved population.
With the College Student Resource Inventory, the RISE Lab’s primary goal is to develop a survey that assesses college student resources from a holistic perspective, in a diverse population. College is a crucial time of a person's life, but currently there is no tool that allows us to examine resources holistically. There are many surveys that look at physical health, mental health, or financial health but there is no one single survey or scale that combines these various resources into one cohesive assessment for college students. Our research team has developed a resource assessment scale for retired older adults and are now expanding to do similar work in more populations over the entire life span.
This project seeks to develop a new measure for resources in Division I student-athletes that can predict wellbeing and future development. Our aim is to identify resources that are deficient so Athletic Depts can provide the necessary programming and assistance to boost student-athletes performance both on and off the field of play.
The AthLife Foundation's national platform works to ensure that deserving kids from our nation's most challenged, yet promising communities, can achieve in their future careers beyond sport. Through grant funding, training and industry leading resources, we help schools create a critical professional mentoring position in secondary education, called an Academic Athletic Coach.
That Academic Athletic Coach works year-round to create high impact programming by g, taps into a student’s passion for their sport and athletics, drives academic achievement, life and leadership skill development, and prepares kids for post high school success. This project seeks to identify areas of need for student-athletes to assist the Academic Athletic Coach.
The effectiveness of several nutrition-focused health promotion treatments for people with intellectual impairments has been examined in research. The significance of individualized techniques for improving nutrition in older adults, much like how programs are designed specifically to match the dietary and physical needs of student-athletes. Health promotion programs for older adults need to address age-related dietary requirements and obstacles to attaining healthy eating, just as student-athlete programs concentrate on improving performance and recovery through particular dietary planning. Interventions that include supportive settings and policies in addition to individual behavior modification are beneficial for both populations. For example, while student-athlete programs may use peer support and coaching to promote healthy habits, programs for older individuals may include caregiver education, community support, and physical and food environment modifications to improve sustainability and accessibility. This analogy emphasizes the necessity of all-encompassing, multi-level policies that address the unique requirements and challenges of various populations in order to guarantee fair health results for all groups.
Six University of Houston undergraduate students from the Research and Innovation in Sports Excellence (RISE) lab alongside Dr. Craig Johnston taught soccer ball mastery skills and played soccer games with the children of SEARCH’s House of Tiny Treasures (HTT) throughout May and June. This partnership emerged from a desire to introduce soccer to the children of HTT, an award-winning educational center that provides quality education to children ages 2-5 who have experienced poverty.
Houston Dynamo FC and Dash have partnered with the RISE lab to conduct a scientific, robust intervention designed for early childhood schools using the Soccer Starts at Home ® (SSAH) program. The SSAH® has been internationally renowned as a revolutionary training mechanism that helps children not only learn soccer skill development, but in doing so, assists in the overall health and wellbeing of the child through the engagement and support of their parents.
Diesel’s Skill Builders is an innovative school and outreach program from the Houston Dynamo and Dash inspired by SSAH and designed for young children ages 2-8 and more specifically, their Parents and the schools in our Greater Houston community.
The purpose of this project is to identify relationships between pre-season physical test scores, performance, and injury risk in professional soccer players from the MLS team, Houston Dynamo FC.