Sport & Exercise Science Laboratory Opening

Tuesday 22^nd March saw the opening of the Sports Science Laboratory at the University with guest speakers; Professor Cathy Speed and Professor Greg Whyte. The Vice Chancellor, Professor Cara Aitchison, and the Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, Professor Andrew Edwards, introduced the afternoon with some statistics about the facilities currently on offer to students and the wider community.

The high quality sporting facilities are ranked =4 in the UK and just last week the Sports Science laboratory was endorsed with the BASES accreditation; the only laboratory in the South West that currently has such an honour. The laboratory now has separate physiology, strength and conditioning, biomechanics, performance analysis and teaching areas, which the staff and students can utilise.

FIFA's Diploma in Football Medicine

FIFA have recently launched a free, flexible, online CPD course, the FIFA Diploma in Football Medicine, which covers 20 certificated modules relevant to the sports medicine practitioner and successful completion of all the units leads to the awarding of a diploma.

This post outlines the units covered and the thoughts of one of our students who is one of the first people to enrol on the course.

Sport & Exercise Lab awarded BASES accreditation

On 4th March, our recently updated sport and exercise laboratories received accredited status from the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science (BASES). confirming the high professional standards of the lab's staff, facilities, equipment, and procedures. BASES is widely recognised as the leading UK professional body in sport and exercise sciences and accreditation is a reflection of the high quality work that is undertaken at the University both with students and in active research in both sport and exercise/health.

10th Peninsula Public Health Network Conference

On Friday, 4th March, members of the health department attended the 10th Peninsula Public Health Network Conference at Buckfast Abbey, Buckfastleigh. The main focus of the day was to reflect on the impact of public health on individuals, communities and whole populations and the breadth and quality of presenters and topics was an illustration of the range of skills, knowledge and disciplines that are represented under the umbrella of public health.

Professor Kevin Fenton (Public Health England National Director for Health and Wellbeing) was able to give those in attendance an insight into the work of PHE, how they had developed over the last 3 years since their inception and what their current priorities were. These included getting the best start for children, tackling inequalities, scaling effective clinical interventions (of which physical activity was one), health, work and economic prosperity and also maximising digital health opportunities.

Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Student Conference - 6th May 2016

The inaugural Student Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Conference, in association with the STO, takes place on the 6th May 2016 at the University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth. The aim of the conference is to bring together sports therapy and rehabilitation trainees to share their research and practitioner experience within the remit of sports injury. The conference will provide an opportunity for practitioners to network and develop their skills through workshops as well as adding to the body of research within the field. It is hoped that this will grow into an annual event for showcasing trainee practitioner research and skills.

To find out more www.marjon.ac.uk/sporttherapyconference2016 or read more below.

BASES Webinar: 5 simple rules for more reliable and valid isokinetic dynamometry data

Bill Baltzopoulos – Professor of Biomechanics, Head of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (RISES), Liverpool John Moores University

On Tuesday 23^rd February BASES organised a webinar on assessment of muscular strength using the Isokinetic dynamometer. This is a piece of equipment is often used here at the University of St Mark and St John as both working with athletes, clients and for student research projects. This webinar provided further insight to how the equipment works, what is measures and how we can improve our ability to collect reliable and valid data. The webinar was hosted by Bill Baltzopoulos whose main interest includes the structure and function of the musculoskeletal system and the measurement and modelling of joint muscle and function during different activities including the isokinetic dynamometry. Prof. Bill Baltzopoulos has also contributed to The BASES Expert Statement on Measurement of Muscle Strength with Isokinetic Dynamometry. Prof. Bill Baltzopoulos provided an excellent insight to the isokinetic dynamometer and how we can improve our methods for assessing muscular strength in the future - see below for the 5 simple rules for improving muscle strength assessment with the isokinetic dynamometer.

About the Webinar

The webinar provided a discussion on appropriate techniques when using the isokinetic dynamometry for assessing strength.

Key areas included:

• Mechanical parameters used to describe human strength and joint function
• Differences between dynamometer moment, joint moment and muscle moments
• Background on how isokinetic dynamometer works and the implications
• Factors that affect reliability and validity of isokinetic dynamometry measurement
• Appropriate corrections to improve reliability and validity and ensure accurate measurements of muscle strength
• Application of isokinetic dynamometry measures – differences between strength assessments and functional assessments

Marjon Sport & Exercise Lab in the news

This week members of the team have been in the local paper explaining the merits of our Alter-G Anti-Gravity Treadmill. To see a video and to find out more have a look at the Herald article online.

Click here to see another blog post on the Alter-G Anti-gravity treadmill.