Research into the potential benefits of exercise obtained from a new device that enables users to swing and fly through the air was the topic of a recent “MTSU On the Record” radio program. 

Gina K. Logue

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Sandy Stevens, an associate professor of exercise science in the Department of Health and Human Performance, and Rawsam Alasmar, a graduate teaching assistant, first aired May 4 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.

You can listen to their conversation via the Soundcloud link above.

The apparatus, called PENDL, straps to the user with a harness. It is suspended from the ceiling or other elevated point. The user then exercises their muscles with up-anddown, side-to-side or swinging motions.

In spring 2020, four people in an experimental group and six in a control group performed 20 different exercises for the lower back on the PENDL in three one-hour sessions per week over eight weeks.

The research showed improvement in the participants’ back strength, back flexibility and back power and also showed reduced lower back pain.

Stevens said MTSU’s research could lay the groundwork for other investigators to pursue endless possibilities for the PENDL’s applications. 

Rawsam Alasmar

Dr. Sandra Stevens

“We’ve thought about it in terms of looking at children with ADHD, autism, hyperactivity, you know, those types of things, to see if just facilitating the sensory stimulus along those neural pathways will help reorganize some of those processes in the brain,” said Stevens.

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, visit the searchable “Audio Clips” archives at www.mtsunews.com.

For more information about the radio program, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.