Specialisations
Students must choose one of two specialisations within the master’s in Human Movement Sciences:
There is also a third specialisation - Physiotherapy - which is only available for students with a bachelor's diploma from SOMT University of Physiotherapy in the Neherlands.
Health and Rehabilitation
Physical activity - whether the result of therapy, exercise training or a change in lifestyle - appears to be a simple yet effective means of improving cardiovascular, metabolic and even mental health.
Furthermore, the ability to move in itself is a fundamental characteristic of human life, which may be hampered by illness, accidents or ageing.
As such, understanding and improving human movement is an important objective of rehabilitation. Both aspects, i.e. human movement as a means to improve health and human movement as a goal in rehabilitation, are covered in this specialisation.
Is this specialisation right for me?
This specialisation is primarily intended for those who are interested in performing and understanding research on the interaction between physical activity, mobility and health. Specific examples are: non-invasive ways to determine muscle health; use of wearable technology for health monitoring; use of motion analysis for evaluation and diagnostics of movement disorders; clinical biomechanics and neuro-rehabilitation.
What are my career prospects?
This specialisation prepares you for a research-oriented future in the field of physical activity and health or rehabilitation in academia, hospitals, rehabilitation centres, life style centres, biomedical companies, et cetera (e.g. PhD, embedded scientists, R&D).
Those who are already in a job, will be able to better embed evidence-based handling in their practical profession.
Programme
During the first 16 weeks, you follow courses specific to this specialisation:
Imaging Muscle Health
Physical Activity and Health
Analysis and Restoration of Human Locomotion
Movement Disorders and Rehabilitation
After these courses, you have a course on designing research, followed by a systematic review course and the research placement leading towards your master’s thesis.
Imaging Muscle Health
This course focuses on muscle function, muscle mass, strength and endurance/fatigue, using short and interactive lectures.
You will also get acquainted with the various methods that are available to measure muscle function (MRI/MRS, functional testing such as strength and endurance measurements by EMG and biodex). The acquired knowledge will be applied to situations of changed muscle function (training/detraining, ageing and metabolic disease). In addition, you will make an instruction movie in which you explain one of the muscle health investigation techniques and its value/application.
Physical Activity and Health
Movement involves and affects major components of our biological system, and therefore it has influence on metabolic health, cardiovascular health and also cognitive health.
The themes of physical activity and cardiovascular, cognitive and metabolic health are offered via short, interactive work lectures that are closely intertwined with a research project.
The specific movement sensors that are used in this course are tri-axial accelerometers that measure accelerations in the vertical, anteroposterior and mediolateral direction of the body to capture total physical activity as well as activity patterns. These accelerometers can also be used to assess a specific aspect of physical activity such as walking speed.
Analysis and Restoration of Human Locomotion
You will learn about the current thinking in motion analysis and the novel approaches for 3D clinical motion analysis and treatment of impaired human locomotion (e.g. virtual reality as a treatment option). You will work with real anonymised patient data to solve their clinical question.
Movement Disorders and Rehabilitation
Treatment of movement disorders does not always result in full recovery; the remaining consequences of the disorders, i.e. the impairments, result in disabilities in daily life functioning and lower quality of life. In rehabilitation, patients learn to participate in their daily life despite their impairment.
During this course you work in little groups of about four on three cases. Together you’ll interpret which methodological approach is needed to measure this issue. And you consider, formulate and evaluate solutions. In addition, you will write your individual essay, in which you argue (pro or con) for the use of innovative technologies used in the domain of rehabilitation (sensor technology and robotics).
What about the academic part?
To be able to apply evidence-based practice in your professional setting, it is essential that you learn to adequately design, conduct, analyse and (orally) present scientific research, in collaboration with peers. In addition, you will need to develop your critical reading and thinking. Therefore, an academic skills training programme is integrated into the various courses. The set of skills that is being trained is identical for both specialisations.
This video gives you an impression of the specialisation Health and Rehabilitation. It is a show and tell by three people who are in one way or another involved in this specialisation: dr. Kenneth Meijer, student Anniina Blomster and clinical operator/researcher at MUMC+ Rachel Senden.
Master Human Movement Sciences: specialisation Health and Rehabilitation
Sports and Nutrition
This specialisation covers themes such as performance testing in athletes, dietary requirements based on type, intensity and volume of exercise, and efficacy of nutritional strategies to optimise sports performance.
Is this specialisation right for me?
This specialisation is developed for students aiming to gain scientific understanding of the interaction between exercise and nutrition. Specific examples are: use of performance testing to study efficacy of sport supplements and/or nutritional interventions in sports practice; advising sports teams and coaches on nutritional programmes to optimise training efficiency; designing and conducting scientific studies to further academic developments in the field of sports and nutrition.
What are my career prospects?
After graduation, you are a sports nutritionist with a scientific understanding of the interaction between nutrition and sports. You are prepared for a research-oriented future in the field of sports and nutrition in academia, applied sciences, sports organisations, sports nutrition companies, et cetera (e.g. PhD, embedded scientists, R&D).
Those who are already in a job will be able to better embed evidence-based handling in their practical profession.
Programme
During the first 16 weeks, you follow courses specific to this specialisation:
Nutrition to Fuel Sports Performance
Sport Supplements and Ergogenic Aids
Nutrition to Support Training Adaptations
Sports and Nutrition: Putting Science into Practice
After these courses, you have a course on designing research, followed by a systematic review course and the research placement leading towards your master’s thesis.
Nutrition to Fuel Sports Performance
This course focusses on the role of nutrition to meet the energy demands of exercise.
The main topics are being discussed on the basis of three cases:
The different energy systems in the human body, which substrates are used during exercise, and how these energy systems are limiting for sports performance.
The role of exogenous substrates to support endogenous energy stores before, during, and after exercise. You will determine which actual food products can be used in practice.
The importance of the intake of large amounts of carbohydrates versus other nutritional strategies to stimulate exercise performance in the light of training intensity and efficacy.
Sport Supplements and Ergogenic Aids
This course focusses on sport supplements and their proposed mechanisms of action. What is available, what is the evidence, what works, how and when, and - not trivial - what does not work? The course contains three cases which will discuss various supplements: caffeine, creatine, buffers (sodium bicarbonate), nitrate, carnitine, fish oil, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and ketones.
Nutrition to Support Training Adaptations
This course focusses on how nutrition after exercise - or even on non-training days - can improve recovery and improve training adaptations.
The course contains three cases in which it will be discussed how the body (with skeletal muscle as main tissue) adapts to different sports/training programmes and how nutrition is more than just a performance fuel; i.e. how can nutrition be used to augment the adaptive response to exercise training, with a focus on protein nutrition.
Furthermore, different recovery strategies are being discussed and a practical experiment on cooling strategies is performed.
Sports and Nutrition: Putting Science into Practice
The focus of this course is on translating scientific knowledge to practical recommendations (practical guidelines tailored for athletes). The course contains three cases in which a nutritional plan will be designed for athletes from different sports, taking into account their training practices. In addition, the course also evolves around individualisation or personalised nutrition depending on factors that go beyond the specific sport discipline, i.e. gender, ethnic background, culture, et cetera.
Topics that are being addressed are popular diets, how dietary needs differ between persons/sports/training phases, dietary assessment and how to communicate with athletes and be part of a larger coaching team.
To get you familiar with the ‘practical environment’, you’ll go on work visits to sports organisations / institutes where you can experience actual examples of how proper sport nutrition is being facilitated in practice (e.g. Topsport restaurant and sports centre Papendal).
What about the academic part?
To be able to apply evidence-based practice in your professional setting, it is essential that you learn to adequately design, conduct, analyse and (orally) present scientific research, in collaboration with peers. In addition, you will need to develop your critical reading and thinking. Therefore, an academic skills training programme is integrated into the various courses. The set of skills that is being trained is identical for both specialisations.
This video gives you an impression of the specialisation Sports and Nutrition. It is a show and tell by three people who are in one way or another involved in this specialisation: dr Lex Verdijk, student Hannes Quandel and researcher at FHML Jorn Trommelen.
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