IMAGINING A FUN FITNESS FUTURE CEASER AND STUDENTS PIONEER NEW RESEARCH

Imagine wearing a fitness device that would automatically warn you of any medical issues and offer solutions. That’s what Assistant Professor Tyrone Ceaser ’07 would like to see one day.

“This is going to sound very 2070-ish,” he said. “But I want people to be able to come into a wellness institute and have a device that syncs every metabolic parameter that they have…so they can be wholly in charge of their wellness 24/7. They could see when a heart attack is coming, see when you might have your next ankle sprain based on the elasticity in your tendons.”

Thanks to Ceaser’s recent research on Zansors’ Respa device, that kind of future may come much sooner than 2070.

Ceaser and his students spent this year working on a Respa pilot version.

“The device gauges your breathing and connects that with equations and data we’ve collected,” he explained. “It fine-tunes breathing during your exercise.”

Respa provides real- time alerts to help users stay in their optimal breathing zones and post- workout analyses. Developers hope the device could help people, particularly athletes, avoid overtraining and prevent muscle damage/injury.

“We called the students ’pioneers’ during the research process,” Ceaser said. “They were excited to be a part

FUN FACTS

Ceasar’s wife, Tammara, an interventionist in Clover Schools, currently attends Winthrop. They have a 3-year-old son, Atlas.

Ceaser hosts a podcast, “Better Call Tyrone.”

of something becoming more prevalent in our field: developing wearable devices.”

Respa marks an interesting turn in Ceasar’s career path: growing up in Compton, California, he wanted to be in the Central Intelligence Agency.

“The James Bond, license to kill thing,” he joked.

He moved to Marion so his mom could care for his ailing grandmother.

“My childhood was complicated because I grew up in foster care — myself, along with my brothers, so we were shuffled around the system,” he said.

He lost both his biological and foster mothers around the same time to cardio-related illnesses, which altered his career path.

“They were both great women,” he said. “I was blessed with having two moms. The top five diseases in the United States are these cardiometabolic conditions, but when you narrow it down to people who look like me…a lot of the conditions we suffer from are preventable or modifiable. It’s definitely personal. I wanted to understand how to make people well.”

Ceaser attended Winthrop, where he ran track and studied athletic training. He credits much of his success to the Learning Excellent Academic Practices (LEAP) program and mentors like professors Alice McLaine, Charlie Bowers, Adolphus Belk Jr. and Janet Wojcik.

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After graduation, Ceaser earned a master’s degree in clinical physiology from UNC-Charlotte and a Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Tennessee. He completed post- doctoral research with the Gramercy Research Group and taught at Wingate University.

Then, Bowers gave him a call.

“He says, ’Tyrone, you should be back at your alma mater,’” Ceaser said. “I said, ’I don’t disagree with that.’ Now I’m taking my mentor’s place and trying to fill his shoes…wow.

“It’s a holistic experience,” he continued. “I’ve been where the student is, literally. It challenges me to be as good of an advisor and mentor and have those life-altering conversations.”

Ceaser and his students put the Respa device through numerous tests during their research.

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