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MSc - Sport and Exercise Rehabilitation

This course is ideal for a graduate physiotherapist professional, or other respective health professional wanting to practise in a sport and exercise environment. This innovative one-year programme will give the opportunity to become your best.

This unique course is designed to give you the academic, professional and industry knowledge and skills needed to enhance your employment prospects and kickstart your career working as a specialist in the field of sport and exercise rehabilitation in a sport and exercise environment.

A key feature of this programme is the applied placement practice and opportunity to work with professional athletes.

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Sport and Exercise Rehabilitation cover image

Course Overview

You will have the opportunity to specialise in musculoskeletal injuries and exercise rehabilitation, enabling you to work within high performance sport, as well as the NHS and clinical practice. A key component of the programme involves exposure to real-world settings allowing for the application of theory into practice and provides you with the opportunity to develop your theoretical knowledge and practical skillset. You will explore an array of applied manual therapeutic techniques, including soft tissue skills, as well as functional rehabilitation and pathophysiology of treatment techniques, athletic strength and conditioning, advanced spinal and pitch-side trauma management and multidisciplinary support for sport and exercise. You will deepen your knowledge and understanding of athletes needs, undertaking clinical and physical tests and assessments and interpreting data and information gathered to prevent injury, aid rehabilitation and enhance athlete performance.

On this course you will...

  • Be able to reach your career goal within one calendar year rather than the more typical two years offered in relatable MSc programmes.
  • Develop an advanced knowledge of sports science and sport injuries to work at the forefront and in the highest sectors of the sports industry, whilst also developing a critical approach to clinical practice and a wide range of transferrable interpersonal skills.
  • Undertake additional courses and qualifications to enhance your CV, including Rocktape FM1 and the Pre-Hospital Immediate Care in Sport (PHICIS) Level 2 Course. These are industry leading qualifications for professional working in elite sport and are integrated into your programme at no additional cost.
  • Apply new knowledge and skills learnt into action by undertaking an extended applied practitioner project in a discipline of your choice through undertaking a 100-hour practitioner placement. You will be able to take advantage of our key partnerships, including with professional and academy level sports clubs and sports injury & rehabilitation clinics, to provide research underpinned intervention strategies to enhance athletes’ injury rehabilitation, prevention and performance.
  • Have access to our specially designed sport and exercise rehabilitation facilities. This includes the Sports Injury Clinic, Functional Rehabilitation and Strength and Conditioning Suite, as well as human performance laboratories. The Institute also benefits from a range of cutting-edge equipment such as focused shockwave for injury treatment, and biomechanical based techniques used to analyse human movement which you will be able to use to screen for and prevent against injury.
  • Study modules involving high quality profession specific training delivered by our excellent staff who are not only research active subject experts but have experience working within the sports industry, bringing professional real-world experience of working with sport performers and teams, coaches, backroom staff and sport governing bodies and organisations.
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Course Structure

What you will learn

This course provides you with the in-depth theoretical knowledge and practical skillset to enable you to be a highly skilled and competent professional working as a specialist in musculoskeletal injuries and exercise rehabilitation in a sport and exercise environment. The modules on this course develop a deep knowledge of Therapeutic Techniques, Exercise Rehabilitation and Conditioning, and Injury Screening and Prehabilitation and how these are applied to the subjective and objective evaluation and analysis of athletes to aid recovery and prevention against injury.

Year one

During the year you will develop the clinical skills, advanced problem-solving, critical thinking and reasoning skills through clinical problem-based scenarios and working with athletes to plan, discuss and apply evidence-based therapeutic interventions. This will be learnt and developed through modules that cover an array of applied manual therapeutic techniques, including soft tissue skills, as well as functional rehabilitation and pathophysiology of treatment techniques and multidisciplinary support for sport and exercise in Semester 1. In Semester 2, spinal and pitch-side trauma management techniques will be complimented with the study of athletic strength and conditioning, as well as screening and injury prevention. Finally, you will conduct an applied practitioner project throughout your programme of study through undertaking a 100-hour placement.

  • Functional Sports Rehabilitation
    The aim of this module is to provide you with the rationale and theoretical underpinning for the application and progression of exercise prescription for improved injury rehabilitation, involving core components of strength, flexibility and joint proprioception towards late-stage functional rehabilitation and return to play. You will develop critical appraisal skills of posture and muscle imbalance and its implications for rehabilitation and gain an understanding of health and safety considerations regarding exercise equipment and testing, and contraindications for rehabilitation. You will also research and evaluate return to play criteria relevant for sports performers.
  • Sporting Manual Therapy
    This module aims to develop a range of manual therapeutic techniques relevant for sports injuries and conditioning. You will critically analyse and reason treatment techniques and their application, exploring the application of these techniques across a range of conditions and environments, to meet client needs, from both a theoretical and experiential perspective.
  • Multidisciplinary Support in Sport and Exercise
    This module will help to develop your multi-disciplinary knowledge and understanding of the inter-disciplinary approach to supporting athletes. You will develop an understanding of the role of constituent sport science support teams in sport performance and the management, prevention, and rehabilitation of sports injuries in the medium and longer term. You will also explore the environmental, physical, social and psychological issues faced by professional sports athletes in different sports.
  • Athletic Strength & Conditioning
    The aim of the module is to develop athlete centred coaches who understand the physical requirements of athletes and can plan, deliver and evaluate training plans aimed at meeting their physical needs. This is done so within the context of maximising their sporting potential and performance. You will examine and explore the advanced and current science behind strength and
    conditioning, such as the development of strength, speed and power. You will develop the knowledge and practical skills required to become an applied practitioner.
  • Pathophysiology & Therapeutic Techniques
    This module will provide you with a deeper understanding of applied pathology of and factors affecting contemporary sport and exercise related injuries, and an awareness of diagnostic testing and reports within a sporting environment. You will explore the pathological processes involved following injury to bone, nerve and soft tissues, including inflammatory response, healing and repair and the impact on human function for sports performance. You will then critically examine the evidence base and practical applications of a variety of therapeutic modalities for treatment and rehabilitation of sports injuries.
  • Spinal & Pitch-side Trauma Management
    This module aims to build further on the “Sporting Manual Therapy” module by exploring more advanced spinal and neurological conditions associated with sport and their treatment. You will develop your critical decision making and clinical reasoning skills by considering neurological and spinal pathology and dysfunctions to explore the application of techniques across a range of conditions and environments, related to sporting musculoskeletal injuries, from both a theoretical and experiential perspective. You will also study and develop practical skills in first aid treatment and advanced trauma care and management within pitch side scenarios.
  • Screening & Injury Prevention
    The aim of the module is to develop your understanding of theory and practical applications behind sports injury occurrence, screening and prevention. You will consider sports injury epidemiology and aetiology, linked to mechanisms of injury, as well as existing screening tools and tests. You will plan to devise your own evidence-based sport-specific injury screening test battery, with awareness of reliability and validity issues, and interventions for applied injury presentation strategies used in sport.
  • Applied Practitioner Project
    Within this module, you will conduct an applied research project extending theoretical and conceptual subjectspecific knowledge and understanding through the application and analysis of theory in practice by undertaking a practitioner placement of your choice and reflect upon your own professional practice and communication of this to a professional audience.

Attend an Open Day at Cumbria

An Open Day is your opportunity to explore one of 5 campuses, meet your lecturers, and find out how the University of Cumbria could become your new home.

Take the next step towards achieving your dreams.
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