Science In Sport

Sports science is defined as a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body levels. In recent years, sports and science have gone together more and more, allowing athletes to work out smarter so that they perform the best that they possibly can. Workouts are scientifically formulated and workout and performance data is recorded with fitness technology, so that nothing is left to chance. But you don’t have to be a professional athlete to use science to improve your workouts and prevent sport injuries.

Australia And Sports Science

Australia is often referred to as the birthplace of sports science, due to the Australian Institute of Sport. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser set this up, when Australia failed to win a gold medal in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. It was the first sports institute to seriously begin to use science to improve athletes’ performance. It didn’t take long for the rest of the world to follow suit.

How Science Can Help Your Sport

The main purpose of sports science is to provide guidance for the individual athlete with regard to their workouts, preparation for events and competitions, and their overall goals. Professional athletes have whole teams of sports scientists to make sure they perform at their best, but a little knowledge of sports science can provide guidance for anyone working out and training. This can be things like choosing the right level of exercise for your fitness level, the best way to perform whatever exercise it is so that you get the most out of it and don’t injure yourself, and scientific methods to keep your motivation up and help you enjoy your workouts more.

There are a multitude of sources online that offer a great deal of information on all of these topics. When following advice though, just make sure it is from a reputable source. Another way to use science to improve your workout is through the use of fitness gadgets and apps and strength and conditioning methods.

The Sports Science Field

Sports science is becoming more and more popular as a field of study, and many universities now offer a sports science programme. The teams professional athletes have around them are largely composed of people who have degrees in sports science. The field is composed of a number of sub-fields. Biomechanics studies human movement and the interaction of the body with equipment through the application of mechanical principles.

Physiology is the branch concerned with the way the body responds to exercise and training. Sports psychology is fast becoming a crucial component of sports science, and it is concerned with questions of human behaviour and mind-set in sports and exercise settings. Lastly, the interdisciplinary branch seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge and solve real-world problems related to sports or exercise using two or more of the other branches in an integrated fashion.

Sports science has fundamentally changed the nature of professional sport and will continue to do so, as it is currently a very dynamic field. But you don’t need to be a professional – a little smart Internet searching, or visiting an institute of sports science can allow you to use science to get the best out of your workouts.