Contact Details:

e-mail: a.w.blanchfield@bangor.ac.uk

Telephone: 01248 38 2343

Bio:

I am a lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science and my main interests lay in the effect of physiological interventions on exercise performance. I am also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teach on a number of performance related modules including Performance Physiology and Sport Nutrition.

Overview:

I am a lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science here at Bangor University and I’m particularly interested in the way that we can modify endurance performance through physiological means such as nutrition, post-exercise recovery, and brain-based interventions

I graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a degree in Sport Science in 2005 and then went on to obtain a Masters degree from Bangor University in 2007. Between 2008 and 2009 I worked as an intern in applied sports before coming back to Bangor to complete a PhD in the Psychophysiology of Endurance Performance. I then worked for one year as a post-doctoral researcher before being appointed full-time by Bangor in 2015.

In my time at Bangor I have sat on the research steering committee for the Welsh Institute for Performance Science (WIPS) and I have worked with local organisations such as Ynys Mon Island Games Association.

Teaching:

My teaching interests mainly revolve around the effect of athletic performance. In line with this I teach on a number of performance related modules that include:

JXH-2052: Nutrition for Performance and Health

JXH-3037: Applied Sport Science of Elite Performance

JXH-4400: Advanced Practice in Sport and Exercise Physiology

JXH-4001: Performance Physiology

I also tend to supervise project students on these themes with a focus on topics such as recovery, nutrition, and perception of effort.

My research revolves mainly around endurance performance, and particularly post-exercise recovery. Primarily I'm interested in the way that psychological, and/or brain based approaches are associated with endurance performance and/or post-exercise recovery.

Specific examples of some of the things that I am interested in include:

The use of self-talk

The effect of mental fatigue or challenges to self-control

The impact of the subconscious on exercise performance

The role of Personality on endurance performance

The manipulation of time perception and the use of virtual reality in sport environments

PhD Opportunities:

I have supervised two PhD researchers to completion, and, workload permitting, do consider further PhD supervision occasionally.

The effect of the brain on perception of effort

The effect of the brain on post-exercise recovery

Monitoring and performance in team/individual sports

Sport Nutrition