“You can have a million things going on but if you love what you’re doing, you’ll find a way to make it all happen” – undergrad did it all in Kinesiology

Everyone at the Physical Activity Centre of Excellence knows Grace Lamont – her grandmother makes sure of it.

Grace joined PACE as a volunteer halfway through her first year in Kinesiology and never left. “I’m there all the time.”

Her grandparents signed up for the MacSeniors program at PACE as soon as COVID restrictions lifted. They’d been more socially than physically active and, coming out of the pandemic, were looking to do more of both. Grace recommended PACE. “I knew my grandparents would fit right in with the rest of the regulars.”

It’s been a lifechanging experience for her grandparents, says Grace. “The transformation’s been remarkable. My grandparents are in their mid-80s and now I have trouble keeping up with them. And I get to see them twice a week at PACE which is an added bonus.”

Grace also had a “PACE grandma” – a MacWheelers client with a spinal cord injury who she befriended soon after becoming a volunteer.  They spent a couple hours every week exercising and stayed connected after Grace became the centre’s volunteer coordinator. It was a hard day when Grace got the news that her client has passed away. “We had set a goal of walking an entire lap around the track in PACE. We were almost there.”

PACE has been as transformational for Grace as it’s been for her grandparents. “I’d always been a creature of habit and I shied away from stepping out of my comfort zone. Change was never my favourite thing. But when the opportunity to volunteer at PACE came along, I went for it and it’s been an amazing experience.” Grace now works in PACE as a paid student assistant therapist, working with clients across all of the centre’s programs.

Grace once again went out of her comfort zone at the end of her second year, this time doing undergraduate research with Stuart Phillips and his team. Stuart is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Skeletal Muscle Health in Aging and Director of PACE and the McMaster Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Health Research. “I met Dr. Phillips at PACE and reached out to see if I could gain some summer experience doing research.” Like PACE, Grace says she found herself in an incredibly supportive and collaborative environment.

She helped collect data for a major study looking at the effects of menstrual cycle phase-based resistance exercise training on skeletal muscle strength and hypertrophy. Grace stayed on in the lab through her third year and completed her senior research thesis in her fourth year, where she focused on analysing how skeletal muscle hypertrophy was impacted by periodizing resistance exercise training around the menstrual cycle. “Grace delivered a senior thesis that I think was incredible,” says Stuart. “She’s a true humanitarian and I feel enormously privileged that she chose to join our lab.”

Grace is returning to the lab this fall to work on her master’s degree, supported by a prestigious scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to study female exercise physiology and muscle adaptations to resistance exercise training.

Working in Stu’s lab with its focus on skeletal muscle health inspired Grace to join McMaster Barbell, the university’s powerlifting club. “It’s been a great way to meet students from other Faculties.”

Grace has her numbers memorized for the “Big 3” lifts – she can deadlift 305 pounds, squat 225 pounds and bench press 140 pounds. Being a kin student has its advantages – Grace is always thinking about the most optimal way to do a lift and push up her numbers.

There’s one other standout number that Grace has hit twice during her undergrad – she achieved a perfect grade point average in her third and fourth years.

So how did Grace pull off that feat while working at PACE, doing undergrad research, working out and competing with McMaster Barbells and carrying a full course load?

“You can have a million things going on but if you love what you’re doing, you’ll find a way to make it all happen.” And it helps if you get to see the people you love a couple times every week on campus.