Research in sports and exercise science is led by Prof. Mark Russell and Prof. Martin Barwood.

Our research supports the physical activity, movement and performance needs of a diverse range of communities; be it elite athletes performing at the highest levels and/or in extreme environments, children engaging in physical education, learners across the life-course, elderly exercisers, ‘hard to reach’ and at-risk physically inactive groups and those recovering from illness or injury.

Our research focuses on:

  • Match-day strategies to enhance the performance of team sports athletes,
  • Physiological and performance responses to intermittent exercise
  • The use of nutritional ergogenic aids on performance in team sports athletes
  • Human responses to cold water immersion and drowning prevention advice
  • Performance enhancement in the heat, particularly for elite sportspersons
  • Ergogenic and ergonomic aids to enhance sports and occupational performance
  • The health consequences of over-exposure to extreme environments

Case Study

Enhancing elite performance 

Prof. Mark Russell’s research on enhancing human performance research focuses on substitutes and half-time protocols, including whole-team pre-match warm-ups, supervised half-time rewarm-ups, half-time interventions, and pre-pitch-entry practices to enhance the performance of team sport players.  

Prof. Russell’s team recreate the applied practices of professional football players in controlled laboratory scenarios to gain further insight. Alternative intervention opportunities were subsequently proposed. Professor Russell has shared data at key practitioner events around the world and delivered practitioner education workshops to staff of domestic and international sports teams, including AFC Bournemouth, Chelsea FC, England Rugby League, Scottish Rugby Football Union and DC United, to share the findings of the research and improve performance.

The scientific findings, published in a range of internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals, have contributed to the evolution of recommendations made to professional team sports players, with the pre-pitch-entry and half-time practices of domestic and international sports teams changing as a result of this work.

Find out more: Leeds Trinity University’s research enhances the performance of professional sports teams.

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