Elite sports performance

We are passionate about exploring the absolute limits of human performance and in helping elite athletes reach their potential. This involves precision exercise testing to evaluate the physiological factors known to impact exercise performance and input into the design of training programmes to optimise physical preparation prior to competition.

This testing is also available to the general public through the group’s Sports Physiology and Exercise Testing (SPET) service, led by Dr Tim Podlogar and Professor Andy Jones.

Professor Andy Jones is well known as a leading expert in the physiology of endurance exercise, especially middle and long distance running. He acted for many years as Lead Physiologist to UK Athletics, working with champion athletes such as Paula Radcliffe, and also served as a consultant to the English Institute of Sport.

Dr Tim Podlogar brings the same rigour to endurance cycling, having worked in professional cycling for a number of years and contributed to general classification victories at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, among others. His research uses stable isotope tracer methodology to develop precise, individualised carbohydrate fuelling strategies for endurance athletes.

Research in this area has focused on developing valid exercise testing procedures and addressing the determinants of the maximal oxygen uptake and efficiency/economy during submaximal exercise. As well as endurance exercise, the research group is interested in the energetics of intermittent exercise, such as occurs in many team sports.