Clinical Exercise Therapy (Hons)

Studying our Clinical Exercise Therapy BSc (Hons) course will equip you with the specialised knowledge and skills in the combined areas of exercise, physical activity and therapeutic treatment. Beginning with fundamental knowledge, our unit in Normal Anatomical Structure and Function will introduce you to human anatomy and kinesiology. You will take an advanced approach to this in our Altered Anatomical Structure and Function unit where you will consider anatomical alterations caused by health and lifestyle factors. This is then explored in the context of sport science in our Anatomy and Biomechanics unit, that aims to introduce you to the principles of human movement, biomechanics and the role of anatomy in sport and exercise science. This will be useful in areas of Clinical Exercise Therapy that includes exercise prescription and coaching for non-clinical and clinical conditions, strength and conditioning and personal training. In addition to anatomy, our Human Physiology unit will help you understand human physiological systems and how the human body adapts to exercise. This knowledge is built on in Year 2, with the Physiology for Training unit where you will identify physiological factors that influence sport and exercise performance and how training methods can influence this.

In more practical areas of learning, the course begins in Year 1 with Gym Instruction, where you will learn the fundamentals of exercise prescription and coaching in a gym setting, with a range of applied exercises. In subsequent years, Clinical Exercise will allow you to safely and effectively design exercise programs and skills for exercise correction and rehabilitation of recreational, sport and clinical populations. Activity to Promote Health and Wellbeing builds on all these units and will require you to develop your own exercise programme project within the community. Additionally, in Structural Assessment and Professional Practice, you will begin to assess human structure, posture and form and begin to apply your anatomy and biomechanics skills in evaluation of participants. The development of your practical skills also takes place in a work-based environment with a reflective approach to practice that is developed in this unit. You will learn fundamental manual therapy techniques, within the Sports Massage unit, that will provide you with the skills and knowledge to use a range of soft tissue techniques. Progressing into our Manual Therapies unit, this will provide you with an understanding of how to safely apply a range of peripheral joint mobilisations and advanced manual therapy in practice.

This leads on to Corrective Exercise, where knowledge acquired on anatomy, biomechanics and posture help you to develop strategies to improve any deviations or chronic issues. Another important area of study includes rehabilitation and injury, and this is where our units in the Management of Lower Extremity Injuries and Management of Upper Extremity Injuries will teach you to assess injured clients and athletes, identify and manage causes of pain/discomfort and/or injury. In your final year, you will complete a Dissertation for Sports Science and Physical Activity where you will investigate a focused and relevant research topic of interest to you and work under the guidance of a supervisor. To help you with this, our unit in Reading and Interpreting Research will introduce you to the research process into scientific literature. Similarly, our Planning and Conducting Research unit will allow you to take a critical understanding of research processes and enquiry in sports science and medicine.