[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Burgomaster_Kirsten.jpg” caption=”Kirsten Burgomaster, a kinesiology doctoral student, won the Iovate Graduate Student Award at the Ontario Exercise Physiology Conference in Barrie last month. Photo by Krista Howarth.”]If getting a degree is like winning a race, kinesiology doctoral student Kirsten Burgomaster would be a marathon runner approaching the finish line. Her research project on Sprint versus endurance training: Metabolic adaptations in human skeletal muscle won the Iovate Graduate Student Award at the Ontario Exercise Physiology Conference in Barrie last month.

“I am very excited to win the Ontario Exercise Physiology award because it recognizes graduate student research in Ontario, and I feel honoured to receive such an award during the final stages of my thesis,” said the Peterborough native.

Burgomaster became a mother last June, and returned to her doctoral studies in exercise physiology after a four-month maternity leave. She works under the supervision of Dr. Martin Gibala, associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology.

“She is an exceptional young scientist and a true inspiration to other students in the laboratory, especially young women,” said Gibala.

Burgomaster's research project compared the benefits of sprint training versus endurance training, and found that short periods of high intensity exercise can produce similar health benefits as longer periods of exercise, dispelling the popular excuse that people don't have enough time to exercise.

“Kirsten's work has shown that very brief bouts of high intensity exercise can stimulate improvements in aerobic metabolism that are comparable to traditional endurance training,” said Gibala. “The study has enormous implications for our basic understanding of physiological adaptations to exercise training, as well as practical applications regarding the minimum 'dose' of exercise necessary to elicits health benefits.”