The East of Scotland Institute of Sport (ESIS) provides Exercise Physiology support to talented athletes’ from a wide range of sports within the ESIS program.

Exercise Physiology provision involves the application and implementation of sports science research to enhance athlete performance and optimize sporting success. Exercise Physiologists’ carry out a range of quality controlled laboratory and field based testing sessions in order to monitor and measure alterations in cardiovascular fitness.

These testing sessions allow the Exercise Physiologist to identify weaknesses in individuals’ performance and adapt training programs accordingly. It also allows the ability to monitor athlete progress through identifying improvements in performance. Sports specific profiling involves identifying athletes’ who may be highly suited to certain sports based on their anthropometric and physiological make up.

Exercise Physiologists’ measure a range of parameters, from anthropometric measures to heart rate and blood lactate concentration. Depending on the nature of the sport, additional in-depth areas may be investigated such as maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max), ventilation rates, thermoregulation and the implementation of cooling and recovery strategies just to name a few.

Vanessa Zucco leads Sports Science in the East of Scotland Institute.