Informing the design of sports and exercise products for exercising women post pregnancy

妇女怀孕后，其生理和生物力学会发生重大变化。这可能包括足部结构（Segal等人，2013）、骨盆底生物力学（伊斯利等人，2017）和关节松弛（Chu等人，2019）的变化，这些变化可能阻碍女性恢复锻炼或运动。女性专用运动和锻炼产品的发展趋势越来越明显，但目前还不清楚这些产品是否适合怀孕后的女性，因为她们经历了实质性的变化。该奖学金将吸引有兴趣研究人与运动设备互动的学生，特别关注怀孕前和怀孕后的女性。初步研究将建立在体育技术研究所的既定研究基础上，重点是鞋类设计和怀孕前后女性的步态分析以及运动胸罩设计。博士学位的方向是灵活的，可以部分塑造，以适应成功的候选人的优势和利益。预期需要使用各种生物力学数据收集和分析技术，包括运动分析系统（Vicon/CODA）、数字图像相关性（GOM）、测力板、肌电图、加速度计和压力分析。也有范围使用先进的分析技术，以确定主题特定的生物力学需要一些使用软件，如Matlab，R，Python或类似的现有经验。

Women experience significant changes to their physiology and biomechanics as a result of pregnancy. This can include changes to foot structure (Segal et al. 2013), pelvic floor biomechanics (Easley et al. 2017), and joint laxity (Chu et al. 2019) which may hinder a return to exercise or sport for women. There is a growing trend for the development of female specific sports and exercise products, but it is unclear how suitable these are for women post pregnancy when exercising given the substantial changes they experience. The studentship will appeal to students interested in studying human-sport equipment interaction with a specific focus on females pre and post pregnancy. Initial studies will build on established research in the Sports Technology Institute with a focus on footwear design and gait analysis of pre to post pregnant females and sports bra design. The direction of the PhD is flexible and can be partially moulded to suit the strengths and interests of the successful candidate. It is intended that a variety of biomechanics data collection and analysis techniques will need to be used including motion analysis systems (Vicon/CODA), digital image correlation (GOM), force plates, electromyography, accelerometers and pressure analysis. There is also scope to use advanced analytic techniques to determine subject specific biomechanics requiring some existing experience of using software such as Matlab, R, Python or similar.