Exercise Physiology

The Department of Exercise Physiology at the College of St. Scholastica is housed in the most recent (Fall, 2008) addition to the Burns Wellness Center and includes five faculty offices, two state of the art classrooms and a 125 seat lecture hall . Also included are two fully equipped laboratories and the SHAPE UP office for physiological assessment and exercise promotion services for the College community. In addition, the graduate level Functional Anatomy lab is housed in the CSS Science Center.

The Department's two laboratories offer approximately 1800 square feet of space and a full complement of metabolic, cardiographic and physiologic assessment equipment. A primary objective of the Department is to provide quality hands-on laboratory and research experiences for all students so all of our equipment is available for student use rather than set aside for faculty or graduate research. This equipment includes:

• A Medical Graphics Ultima II^TM metabolic analyzer with cardiac output and 12-lead ECG capabilities.
• Two Medical Graphics Cardio2^TM metabolic analyzers that have been upgraded with the latest software available and continue to produce research quality data.
• A New Leaf metabolic analyzer.
• A Marquette CASE 8000^TM Stress Test and Electrocardiographic system with integrated treadmill.
• An Acuson 128 Computed Sonography machine.
• Four additional stand-alone ECG monitors.
• Numerous stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs and heart rate monitors.
• Multiple treadmills, cycle and rowing ergometers.
• A variety of stadiometers, scales, skin-fold calipers and body fat analyzers.
• Additional equipment for assessing fitness and strength (dynamometers, goniometers, sit-and-reach boxes)
• Ten hard-wired desktop computers. In addition, the labs and other department space have 24/7 wireless internet access available.

The cadaver lab, used for the graduate level Functional Anatomy course, allows the student the opportunity to see and experience the complexity of the human body and its inner structures through hands-on dissection. Uncovering, and discovering, the body through dissection provides the student with an experience that reveals the body's elaborate systems, organs and tissues and how they interconnect and function as one.

The SHAPE UP office is used to provide a variety of exercise related services to the College community including conducting pre-exercise screening and fitness assessments which are followed up with an exercise prescription and instructions for safe and effective exercise for students, faculty, staff and alumni. This office houses the New Leaf ^TM metabolic analyzer which can be used for determining resting and exercise energy expenditure for the general population. The SHAPE UP personal fitness program provides an opportunity for the exercise physiology students to gain practical client/patient contact in a pre-internship setting.