Changing times have increased the importance of safe and effective exercise prescription. At one pole we have the increasing reliance on sport science to optimise the performance of the growing number of professional athletes while at the other pole we face the challenges of a society with rapidly increasing levels of sedentary behaviour and associated health problems. Between those poles sport and exercise science is becoming increasingly employed in the development of safe and effective exercise interventions for, amateur athletes across a diverse and growing range of sports, the fitness industry, jobs involving heavy workloads for example firemen and shearers, military and police personnel, etc.

The development of an effective exercise intervention requires a critical understanding of a wide range of scientific disciplines including; anatomy, biochemistry, biomechanics, medicine, motor learning, nutrition, physiology and psychology. Those individuals who have the requisite knowledge across these sciences and skills in critical analysis have a huge competitive advantage when applying for positions in this field.

Students enrolled in the HPSCI degree have been introduced to the aforementioned scientific principles and this paper provides the opportunity to critically examine how exercise physiology knowledge can be integrated to inform best exercise prescription practices.

This paper consists of a weekly two hour lecture which runs primarily as an interactive educational session where students are tasked with presenting and critically discussing research and other material associated with a variety of topics relevant to the field.

Students will also attend a weekly two hour laboratory that will provide the opportunity for hands on experience with a wide range of tools and technologies used in the field of exercise physiology to monitoring fitness, health, and performance. The students will gain skills in critically evaluating the validity and applicability of many of these systems. The laboratory classes are held at the health, sport and human performance laboratory, the ULeisure recreation centre, and the University of Waikato sport science laboratory at the Avanti velodrome.

Students are graded on THREE assignments which are based around the laboratory tasks and material presented.

Assignment One (30%) consists of two parts: a) constructing and performing a sound scientific methodology to investigate maximum accumulated oxygen deficit (10%); and b) analyse and present the data collected in a concise manner appropriate to a scientific abstract that describes your exercise physiology test (20%).

Assignment Two (45%) consists of three parts: a) complete a physiology experiment designed to assess the effect of heat on exercise performance and indicate the strengths and weaknesses of the protocol (5%), b) analyse and present the data collected in the form of a scientific abstract (20%), c) present the data collected in the form of a poster and give a 2 minute presentation (20%).

Assignment Three (25%) focuses on assessing the strength of evidence in scientific work.

The expectation for a student’s workload for a 15 credit point 300 ­level paper is approximately 150 hours. Given we only meet approximately 12 times for this paper (totaling 48 hours of contact time), there will be a significant allocation of non­-contact hours expected for this course. The approximate breakdown is as follows:

All contact hours (lectures and laboratories) are compulsory and comprise 4 hours a week for 12 weeks = 48 hours

The Strength of Evidence assignment will require non-contact reading and preparation time = 20

The Maximum Accumulated Oxygen Deficit assignment will require non-contact reading and preparation time = 24

The Heat Strategies assignment will require non-contact reading and preparation time = 36

Lecture preparation readings and related tasks: 10 hours

Moodle/administration time: 10 hours