Career journey

Questions and Answers

What inspired you to work and/or study exercise physiology?

Probably my background in sport. From a young age I was involved in aerobic gymnastics. I was training regularly and competing nationally and internationally. At the moment, I’m working on a project looking at the effects of a novel multi-strain probiotic product on exercise performance and recovery from a muscle damaging bout of exercise.

What do you enjoy the most about working as an exercise physiologist?

The variety of the job! I love that I get to be involved in the labs, interacting with participants and collecting data. I also really love teaching exercise physiology. The practical classes can really bring the theoretical content to life, and the students really enjoy those.

There are so many interesting topics that are being investigated in this space at the moment, but one of the topic areas I’m particularly interested in, is around the gut physiology in the female athlete.

What’s been the biggest challenge about working in exercise physiology?

The biggest challenge about working in exercise physiology is probably the instability of trying to get into a role in physiology. The advice I would give to somebody looking to work in exercise physiology is to gain experience of working, both in industry and in academia. Try and gain that practical experience with industry to see if you want to be an applied practitioner, but also gain some experience with research and teaching.

Why do you think exercise physiology is important as a career?

Exercise physiology research helps us live longer and healthier lives because it covers multiple areas. It covers areas such as physical activity and sedentary behaviour to cardiovascular health, disease prevention, and ageing.

What inspired you to join as a member of The Physiological Society?

My colleagues at Loughborough University inspired me to become a member. They strongly recommended that I join the society for the benefits of its grants, conferences and workshops.

What do you enjoy the most about being a member of The Physiological Society?

The workshops have been fantastic, I’ve attended two of them so far, and I hope to attend more of them in future. It’s also exciting the number of grants offered by The Physiological Society, which in the coming years, I’m looking to explore and apply for.

What have you found most beneficial being a member of The Society?

The Variability workshop last year was excellent, as part of this workshop, I was able to submit an abstract and receive feedback on some of my work from experts in the field of variability.

How has being a member of The Physiological Society helped support you throughout your career?

The Physiological Society has supported me as an exercise physiologist by hosting a variety of workshops. These have been really informative in shaping my current work as a postdoc, but also my previous work as a PhD student. Being able to put on my CV that I’ve attended workshops delivered by The Physiological Society is something that has really helped me get to where I am today.

What would you say to others looking to join The Society?

What I would say to anybody looking to join The Physiological Society is, is do it. I’ve had a really good experience with The Physiological Society to date, their workshops, conferences and also their grant opportunities are brilliant.