Module Directory

This module focuses on functional rehabilitation within the practice of sports therapy. Exercise as an essential component of injury management, injury prevention and performance enhancement is fundamental to this module. Students will develop their abilities to prescribe and deliver progressive exercise programmes. They will be able to make reasoned decisions in the selection of exercise focused on: flexibility, endurance, strength, power / speed, skill and co-ordination. Return to sport, warm-up and cool down will be explored. Within this module students will explore the participation of specific populations in exercise and sport, including: the elderly, children and those with disabilities. They will also consider the role of exercise and mental health.

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce a number of core elements of fitness and functional capacity to students i.e. flexibility, skill and co-ordination, strength, speed, power and endurance but more importantly how exercise can be used to improve or develop these components.


• To explore exercise prescription in populations including children, adults, the elderly, those with disabilities and in mental health settings in addition to sports participants from recreational to high performance athletes.


• To learn safe and effective progressive exercise programme prescription and execution incorporating adequate and justified warm up and cool down for a given population.


• To address the use of exercise in prehabilitation / injury prevention and recovery alongside criteria for return to activity.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Justify and critique the use of exercise for injury prevention, rehabilitation and performance enhancement.


2. Design, implement and evaluate appropriate individual and group rehabilitation programmes for a given patient(s) / client(s) incorporating an adequate warm-up and cool-down.


3. Outline the key components of fitness / functional capacity and discuss how these may be improved with exercise.


4. Prescribe, observe and provide feedback on exercise performance.

This module will consist of limited taught sessions to introduce concepts leading to a focus on problem based learning both individually and as small groups. Demonstration of practical aspects will be given with the view to getting students to develop and present programmes of exercise including warm-up, cool downs and also pre-participation screening plans. The theoretical grasp of such concepts of specificity will be gained but will also be looked at from a very practical / applied perspective.

The learning, teaching and assessment of this module are closely integrated. A variety of teaching approaches will be used. Whole group lectures will introduce key concepts with applied examples of how this knowledge can be of value in a practical and real-life context interwoven into taught and student led sessions.

Interactive practical classes will be used to introduce and develop knowledge and application of progressive forms of exercise intervention in health and with links to injury and healing of tissues. There will be tutorial sessions for collaborative learning through group work and independent study, both directed and self-directed.