Sport and Exercise Physiology

The sport and exercise physiologist (SEP) has expertise in non-clinical exercise physiology specifically around the assessment of performance and exercise prescription with the aim of improving athlete performance, fitness, health and/or wellbeing.

Scope of Practice

• Apply the principles of exercise physiology in a non-clinical setting for the improvement of performance, fitness, health and/or wellbeing.
• Knowledge of appropriate, reliable and valid methods for assessing physiological performance for a range of non-clinical populations in a variety of environments and sporting contexts.
• Knowledge of a wide range of exercise prescriptions for non-clinical populations in a sport performance or health and wellbeing context.
• Communication of findings in an accessible manner for medical staff, other sports science team members, coaches and participants.
• Aid coaching staff in the development of training programmes often in conjunction with strength and conditioning staff.
• Accurately monitor and record team or individual performance over time.
• Working with researchers to develop new sport-specific or context-specific tests (e.g. team and individual sports or in – non-clinical – health/physical activity promotion settings) and exercise prescriptions.
• Read and interpret a wide range of physiological studies to make them accessible for wider audiences including coaches, athletes and participants.

Skills and competencies

Candidate case studies should demonstrate the following;

• The knowledge to employ a wide variety of energy system specific, sport specific and/or component-of-fitness-specific assessments tools (field and laboratory) to evaluate physiological functioning
• Ability to monitor changes in energy system response over time through the use a variety of assessment tools.
• Demonstrate expertise in an area of exercise physiology such as sport performance or physical activity promotion.
• Ability to prescribe exercise to specific populations in a sports performance or non-clinical health context.
• Ability to accurately interpret physiological data and monitor outcomes in the short or long-term.
• Ability to relate own findings to the wider field and previous research to aid with interpretation of assessments.
• Ability to explain and work in a way that is safe at all times for participants.
• Ability to analyse data utilising equipment software and statistical tools such as SPSS etc.
• Ability to communicate findings in an appropriate manor to the stakeholders (e.g., written reports, annotated video analysis)