Science and Cycling: Creating Meaningful Connections

Science and Cycling: Creating Meaningful Connections

By Lacy M. Alexander, PhD, FAPS

I attended my first APS meeting in San Diego in 2004. As a first-year doctoral trainee, I diligently prepared my three-minute presentation, anticipated every possible question about my data and even looked up pictures of the big names who might walk by my poster (my mentor trained me well). I was particularly excited to interact with two of these scientists; I will call them N2. I held these two people in very high esteem for their contributions to physiology, and they just seemed like fun people! Little did I know at the time how much enrichment they would bring to my life, both in and out of science. 

After San Diego I continued to interact with N2 at scientific meetings. They were role models to me, and I wanted to emerge from my professional training to be like them. But I found I had much more than physiology in common with N2. While I am confident that my career has benefited by my professional relationship with them, they have also contributed to my happiness in other immeasurable ways. N2 were a pilar of support through my most challenging personal moments, including divorce and surgery. They provided the shoulder to cry on, advice (including how I should go about changing my professional name back to Alexander) and even their home when I needed a place to convalesce. 

Having friends and fulfilling interpersonal relationships is the most important predictor of happiness and satisfaction in life. Social psychology studies indicate that we are in a loneliness crisis that predates the pandemic. In 2021, approximately 12% of people in the U.S. reported that they had no close friends; this was an increase from 3% in 1990.

While the cause of our loneliness crisis is multifactorial, one contributing factor is the challenge of making new friends in adulthood. It is not surprising that time spent together and engaging in leisure activities is associated with close friendships. By the nature of our training as physiologists, we spend concentrated periods of time with people who have common interests. My graduate school lab mates and I spent hours each week helping each other with experiments and engaging in social activities. You would probably find us at a pub or having a BBQ on any given Friday. Now, as I get older, it takes a concerted effort to put myself out there to make and keep friends. 

Intentionality is the cornerstone for building friendship. N2 and I have monthly Zoom happy hours, which are reminiscent of those graduate student Friday happy hours—but with higher quality beverages. We share our adventures in science and in life, and we try to exercise together virtually for 30 minutes once a week. You can catch us doing a Peloton ride most Mondays at 7 a.m. Though we are each in our own home fitness studio, it is the intentionality of spending time together, cheering each other on, laughing and sweating together that makes it feel like we are much closer than across state lines. 

Lacy M. Alexander, PhD, FAPS, is a professor of kinesiology at The Pennsylvania State University. You can find her on Peloton at @LMA_ooo.

This article was originally published in the March 2023 issue of The Physiologist Magazine.