The Saint Mary’s College Human Performance Lab gives students hands-on experience in exercise science through research, real-world learning, and community partnerships.
The Human Performance Lab is a space designed to bring the exercise sciences to life through health and performance based physiological assessments. The impact the Human Performance Lab has on the SMC and surrounding community is significant. It is the ‘face’ of the Kinesiology Departments Exercise Science Program, it is a regular stop for campus tours, and athletic team recruits often come to the lab as part of their first visit to SMC. The lab serves three primary purposes: learning, service, and research.
Hands-On Learning and Research in Human Performance
In the Human Performance Lab, students get hands-on experience exploring movement, fitness, health, and injury prevention through real testing and experiments.
Whether it's measuring performance, assessing fitness, or analyzing how the body responds to physical activity, students apply what they're learning in courses like exercise physiology, strength and conditioning, athletic injury care, and exercise prescription. Kinesiology and Biology students use the lab to turn classroom concepts into real-world skills they can take into their future careers.
Using Science to Serve Others
The Human Performance Lab serves both the Saint Mary's community and athletes across the Bay Area. The annual GaelFit program provides comprehensive health-fitness assessments to our community.
- The annual GaelFit program offers comprehensive health and fitness assessments to students, faculty, and staff.
- Saint Mary’s athletic teams undergo regular performance testing in the HPL, allowing trainers and coaches to tailor training plans based on real-time data.
- Local athletes, including cyclists, runners, and triathletes from around the Bay Area utilize the Lab’s testing services to optimize their training and track their progress.
Explore. Test. Discover.
Professors in the kinesiology department utilize the Human Performance Lab to conduct exercise science related research projects with the aim of broadening our understanding of the health and exercise sciences and to engage our students in the scientific process. Through collaborative efforts, faculty from other departments and universities, as well as students from other universities have conducted research in this space.
Contact the Human Performance Lab
Derek Marks
Email: dwm1@stmarys-ca.edu