Sports & Exercise Science

Kenji Doma

Associate Professor
kenji.doma@jcu.edu.au

Carl Woods

Adjunct Associate Professor
carl.woods@jcu.edu.au

Michael Inskip

Senior Lecturer/AEP Clinical Educator
michael.inskip@jcu.edu.au

Teneale McGuckin

Senior Lecturer
teneale.mcguckin@jcu.edu.au

Anthony Leicht

Head, Sport and Exercise Science
anthony.leicht@jcu.edu.au

Brian Heilbronn

Senior Lecturer / Clinical Educator / Clinical Placement Coordinator
brian.heilbronn@jcu.edu.au

Fiona Barnett

Adjunct Associate Professor
fiona.barnett@my.jcu.edu.au

Denise Turner

Lecturer, Sport and Exercise Science
denise.turner@jcu.edu.au

Optimising concurrent cognitive and physical Training in military personnel (OptiTrain) (Old ID 27134)

Kenji Doma

29 Sep 2021 - 28 Jun 2024

The combination of different training types is common for athletes looking to improving fitness and performance however, this combination or ‘concurrent training’ may impair overall training quality and adaptations. Using the theoretical basis of concurrent training, this project will clarify the effects of concurrent cognitive and physical training on cognitive and physical performance. Project outcomes will substantially aid in the development of appropriate training and maximization of performance for military personnel. This project is being conducted as part of the Human Performance Research network (HPRnet) program of studies.

FRIEND: Frailty reduction via implementation of exercise, nutritional support and deprescribing project (Old ID 27850)

Michael Inskip

04 Nov 2022 - 23 Dec 2023

The Frailty Reduction via Implementation of Exercise, Nutritional support and Deprescribing (FRIEND) Project will implement our evidence-based, sustainable, multi-disciplinary program to improve frailty in cognitively-impaired residents of aged care. The aim of FRIEND is to establish integrated processes and pathways within a residential facility that enable early identification and effective reduction of frailty.

Australian Defence Force Heat Tolerance Testing (Old ID 20420)

Wade Sinclair

01 Jun 2012 - 01 Jun 2017

This agreement will enable Dr Melissa Crowe and associated staff of the Institute of Sport and Exercise Science at JCU to provide heat tolerance testing for member of the Australian Defence Force who may have suffered heat stroke in accordance with policy from the Australian Defence Force Joint Health Command.

Peripheral Arterial Disease (Old ID 19681)

Anthony Leicht

01 Jul 2012 - 31 Dec 2025

Developing novel therapies ad management pathways for Peripheral Arterial Disease. Aim 1. to assess the safety and efficacy of novel medications for PAD within carefully designed clinical trials and registries; Aim 2. to utilise clinical risk factors and novel biomarkers to develop models to better predict outcomes for PAD: Aim 3. To develop appropriate guidelines for the evidence-based management of PAD in Australia and assess novel ways to implement them within Queensland.

Quantifying the acute physical, cognitive and physiological responses of various training modalities in Australian Soldiers (Old ID 26736)

Kenji Doma

05 Feb 2020 - 31 Dec 2025

The project sets out to answer the following research question: What is the degree of stress, fatigue and recovery experienced by Australian Soldiers after bouts of occupationally specific physical activities? To answer this question, the project will develop an evidence-based assessment protocol to assess levels of fatigue and stress in Soldiers after bouts of occupationally related strenuous activities across various periods of employment. This will inform the chain of command on appropriate recovery times for different modalities of training, ensuring that soldiers remain combat-ready throughout their training cycles and minimise symptoms overtraining.

Quantifying the acute physical, cognitive and physiological responses of various training modalities in Australian Soldiers (Old ID 26736)

Wade Sinclair

05 Feb 2020 - 31 Dec 2025

Quantifying the acute physical, cognitive and physiological responses of various training modalities in Australian Soldiers (Old ID 26736)

Anthony Leicht

05 Feb 2020 - 31 Dec 2025

The Impact of Daily Physical Activity and Sleep on Resting Heart Rate and Resting Heart Rate Variability in Individuals with High and Low Stress Load

Anthony Leicht

30 Jun 2024 - 29 Jun 2025

It is known that regular physical activity decreases resting heart rate (RHR) and increases resting heart rate variability (HRV), while chronic stress increases RHR and decreases resting HRV. Although it is recommended that stressed individuals exercise to reduce their stress burden, it is unclear if they benefit from exercise to the same extent as those who do not experience stress overload. A current gap in the literature is the lack of studies investigating cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning in individuals with different chronic stress loads. The current project aims to investigate the differences in long-term ANS responses to daily physical activity in people experiencing high versus low chronic stress. We hypothesize that individuals who experience chronic stress exhibit a blunted autonomic response (less decrease in RHR and less increase in resting HRV) to daily exercise due to an inability to regulate parasympathetic activation effectively. Therefore, in this regard they won’t benefit from regular exercise as much as those who don’t experience chronic stress, owing to their decreased autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity. In order to test this hypothesis, we would like to benefit from the Tesserae dataset.

Embedding digital technology in Health and Physical Education (HPE), Exercise Science and Technology subjects to enhance learning, teaching and assessment.

Wade Sinclair

Embedding best practice physical and health assessment and monitoring technology in Exercise Science and Exercise Physiology subjects to enhance learning, teaching and assessment.

Wade Sinclair