Our research

As physical inactivity is a major cause of many current chronic diseases, the research field of public health in sports science in particular is highly relevant to society. The Department of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Graz aims to become the first point of contact in the research field of "Exercise and Health" in Austria and to carry out major national and international research projects.

The research field of physical activity and health investigates which physical activity and sports programs contribute to the health of individuals and population groups and how physical activity can be increased at the population level. The tasks of this research field lie in the diagnosis and design of specific innovative physical activity interventions for people in different settings, for groups of people with common demographic characteristics, for people with common health goals and generally at population level. The aim is to identify factors at the behavioral and relationship level to promote physical activity and to assess the effects of measures on health parameters using quantitative and qualitative methods. The aim is to carry out more longitudinal and intervention studies, to expand the subjective and objective recording of independent and dependent variables and, in line with the social mission, to translate the research results in such a way that they can be used by others for implementation.

An already established field of work at the Department of Human Movement Sciences, Sport and Health is the natural science branch of sport science, in particular movement and training science.

Human physical performance is understood here in a broader sense. It includes the above-average physical ability of(highly) competitive athletes as well as the physical performance of children, older people, people with special needs and patients. In this field of research, the basics and applications for analyzing and developing human performance are investigated from a training science and movement science perspective. To this end, our department uses research methods from biomechanics, performance physiology, mathematical modeling and quantitative and qualitative sports game analysis.

The aim is to define the necessary and appropriate dose of exercise (frequency, duration, intensity) and form of exercise to improve or maintain performance in healthy individuals and to treat various (chronic) illnesses. Athletes should maximize their individual performance, amateur athletes should increase or maintain their performance and, in the case of patients, the healing process should be promoted, the quality of life and life expectancy increased and the side effects of therapies reduced. Particular attention is paid here to the mediation level of the recommended exercise intervention.

The implementation of a positive attitude towards physical activity - if it is to be sustainable - requires motivational impulses that are specifically tailored to the respective target group or person. Awareness-raising and the teaching of the necessary skills must be promoted throughout the entire lifespan in the education, leisure and health sectors.In the research field of education and upbringing, the significance of physical experience, exercise and sport for the lifelong promotion of education and upbringing is being investigated and orientation guidelines and measures for the development of physical, mental, cognitive, cultural and practical life skills and individually specific personal and social skills are being developed. Analyses of domain-specific learning and teaching processes can contribute to the development of suitable target group and person-specific approaches to motivation for physical activity. Furthermore, findings , e.g. from the movement, training or health sciences , are incorporated and transformed and evaluated in forms of pedagogical mediation (e.g. teaching analyses, therapy analyses), subject-specific teaching materials are created, the framework conditions of learning and teaching processes are examined and interaction behavior in the course of motor activities is reflected upon. Other research questions concern the needs and expectations of target groups with regard to physical activity and sport: from a demographic perspective (e.g. age- or gender-specific), from a psychographic perspective (e.g. lifestyle), with regard to social mandates (e.g. education/training, violence prevention, inclusion) or specific health objectives (e.g. obesity, burnout). The findings are applied in both public and privateinstitutions (e.g. educational institutions, tourism offers). The area is part of the university's research focus "Learning - Education - Knowledge". The research field of exercise and education/training also forms a background for the research-led teaching of teacher training in "Exercise and Sport", which is currently increasingly in demand by students.

The research area "Physical Activity and Public Health" investigates how health-effective behavior arises and can be promoted in the population and what connections there are between physical activity and health. The research activities can therefore be assigned to the following four topics:

• Based on the socio-ecological model, research into the factors influencing physical activity,
• Adequate measurement of health-effective exercise and functional fitness,
• Planning, implementation and evaluation of interventions to promote health-enhancing physical activity, and
• translation of research findings for the development of effective public policies to promote health-enhancing physical activity. The research area is integrated into the university's research focus on heterogeneity and cohesion

Examines the contribution of exercise and sport to the lifelong promotion of education and upbringing. Problems at the interface of personality (or specific target groups) and physical experience/exercise/sport are analyzed and specifically tailored measures are developed, the impact of which is evaluated. Exercise and sport activities are examined as a field of experimentation for identity development (e.g. migration, violence prevention), as a health-promoting measure (overweight/obesity, burnout) and as a specific form of education/knowledge (body memory, implicit knowledge, habitus, drive). Age- and needs-oriented teaching materials are created. The studies relate to recreational, alternative, health and inclusive sport. The research area is integrated into the inter-university research focus "Learning, Education, Knowledge".

Educational and training processes are examined in the research area of subject didactics. The main focus here is on analyzing the close networking of the content level (teaching and learning) with the relationship level, on which both learners and teachers interact with and among each other.

This research takes place in the context of the major changes in the Austrian education system and its organization. The focus is on the effects in relation to teaching at lower and upper secondary levels and the consequences of these influences on meaningful teacher training for the subject of physical activity and sport. It is carried out from an ontological-hermeneutic and constructivist-relativistic perspective using hermeneutic and empirical methods.

The main area of research is the analysis of the influence of the properties of the muscle, tendon and skeletal system and the control of movement as well as the movement conditions on human movement. In particular, aspects of training, the ageing process and health effectiveness are investigated. Other subject areas include tactics and technique analyses in team and individual sports and the didactics of interdisciplinary and cross-curricular teaching of movement and sport with physics and mathematics as well as posture and stress studies. The research area is integrated into the inter-university research focus areas "Models and Simulation" and "Brain and Behavior".

The research focus of "Sports Physiology, Training Science & Training Therapy" is the development of performance diagnostic procedures using the "Lactate Shuttle Theory", the development and evaluation of suitable load specifications and training methods and their implementation in sport, in the world of work and in the treatment of chronic diseases (training therapy). The systematic application of specific training methods (interval training) in controlled training studies in patients with various chronic diseases aims to optimize training therapy concepts with regard to pathogenesis, symptoms, fitness and quality of life. Another focus is the measurement of physical stress and energy expenditure during heavy physical work.