Health, Exercise and Sport

This Health, Exercise and Sport degree will enable you to design, deliver, manage, and promote a variety of health-based interventions. You will be equipped to engage with different population groups across our communities including older people, children and young people, ethnic minority groups and people with additional needs or health conditions.

As a Health, Exercise and Sport professional, you can apply your knowledge and skills in several environments. Potential career paths include community activators, sport governing bodies, , schools, community outreach projects, local council workforces, GP referrals, charities, research centres, academic institutions and rehabilitation centres.

You will study a combination of health, exercise and sport modules including sport and exercise physiology, sports & exercise psychology, health and sport nutrition, physical activity, public health policies and health promotion. Giving you the knowledge, skills and experience you need to support, improve and protect the long-term health and holistic well-being of individuals and communities.

You will also:

Understand the principles of, human anatomy and physiology, sports and exercise psychology and nutrition.

Explore how exercise and sport can be used to encourage positive sustained lifestyle improvements or changes.

Provide nutritional assessments and learn about the nature of common health conditions that may require dietary manipulations or adaptations.

Understand common research methods and learn to form evidence-based perceptions of contemporary and emerging issues.

Evaluate the policies and procedures that currently guide the public health landscapes, including locally and nationally.

Level 4:

Introduction to Coaching Pedagogy and Practice

You will learn about coaching environments, design sessions and reflective practices. You will get the opportunity to apply your skills during weekly practical sessions. As a result, you will develop the skills to confidently deliver a variety of coaching sessions.

Introduction to Sports and Exercise Psychology

You will be introduced to the basics of psychology. This includes the biological bases of behaviour and the individual psychological differences which can be recognised in health and pathology. This module will give you an understanding of the theoretical models of change.

Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology

This module will introduce you to the human anatomy (e.g., skeletal, muscular, nervous and cardio-respiratory)and physiology (e.g., muscular, cardiovascular and respiratory) systems. You will learn how the body works through hands on experience with specialist equipment.

Nutrition for Health, Exercise and Sport

You will begin to get to grips with the principles of nutrition. More specifically, the sources, structure and functions of energy (e.g., kcal per gram of nutrient), macronutrients, micronutrients, and fluids. You will learn to talk in food terms, to align with informed food-based government guidance and contemporary sports nutrition guidelines.

Level 5:

Physiological and Nutritional Demands of Human Activity

How to screentest, interpret and analyse physiological and nutritional data produced at rest, during or post human activity. In addition, you will continue to develop your theoretical knowledge, in order to provide informed recommendations to help participants achieve optimal well-being and day-to-day functioning from a physiological perspective.

Sport and Exercise Psychology

An overview of contemporary topics within Sport and Exercise Psychology, including flow, think aloud and resilience. You will learn how to apply your knowledge of the psychological underpinnings to; improve performance and enhance wellbeing enabling people to flourish.

Nutrition and Metabolism for Health, Exercise and Sport

In this module, you will develop the essential skills needed to conduct nutritional assessments and determine the nutritional status of an individual, group or population. You will learn techniques to collect, analyse and interpret data, in order to support a diagnosis and develop an informed nutrition plan(s).

Public Health and Policy

In this module you will get to grips with the key concepts in public health, prevention, and promotion, through a sustainability lens. Alongside an introduction to policies and procedures that guide the public health landscape, you will also explore the impact of behaviour change programmes and strategies to improving public health from a socio-ecological perspective.

Level 6:

Health and Exercise Promotion

Bringing health promotion concepts to life, this module will give you the opportunity to put theory into practice. You will analyse the biopsychosocial model of health (e.g., Engels, 1977; Smith, 2021), as a framework for promoting health and physical activity and facilitating behaviour change.

Advanced Nutrition for Health, Exercise and Sport

You will look at common health conditions (e.g., obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases etc) that require dietary manipulation. Focusing on specific dietary requirements for special population groups.

Contemporary Issues in Sport

You will look at the contemporary and emerging issues in Health, Exercise and Sport. Understand how to use common research methods to form well-argued critiques and articulate compelling arguments.

Project

Undertake a substantial final year project, giving the opportunity to consolidate academic experience, knowledge and skills gained during studies. The opportunity to present and disseminate findings.

To work as a teacher at a state school in England or Wales, you will need to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS). This is offered on this course for the following level:

• Course does not award QTS