Exercise and Sports Science Teams Up with Student Athletes 

Author Miranda Hasani '25 is a Sports, Entertainment, Event — Management major and works as a student assistant at JWU, contributing to JWU News. 

Exercise and Sports Science (ESS) is one of the most popular Health & Wellness majors at Johnson & Wales — and for good reason. This program has a state-of-the-art Exercise and Sports Science Hub with a Human Performance Lab and an Exercise Science Lab for students to gain hands-on experience.  

Along with professors and students in the Dietetics & Applied Nutrition program, ESS professors and students have been conducting a series of performance evaluations on JWU student athletes including Women's Soccer, Men’s Wrestling, Women’s Volleyball, Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s and Women’s Hockey, Women’s Field Hockey and Cross Country! 

The Evaluation Process 

The evaluation process involves using the Exercise Science Lab’s BOD POD® GS-Xs, a machine which uses whole-body densitometry to determine body mass composition. 

According to Professor Paul Ullucci, who designed the lab and started the ESS program, “it measures the percentage of each athlete’s body which is fat-free mass (muscle and bone) and fat using air displacement or the volume of air displaced where the body is not taking up space” explained Ullucci. Subjects followed a protocol given to them which included wearing minimal clothing to enhance accuracy, being hydrated and not eating for a set period of time before the evaluation. They then step on an uber accurate scale, enter the device and it performs two to three measures of air displacement. Ullucci validates the high accuracy and reliability.  

These evaluations were able to help JWU student athletes by establishing preseason measurements that allow athletes to establish a baseline. Then, during the season, if they felt like they were slowing down, sleeping more, getting tired/fatigued or sick, they could retest to determine if they were losing fat-free mass. Loss of fat-free mass indicates lost muscle or bone and is indicative of increased risk for injury and poor performance. They can then use that information to work with a registered dietician such as Chef Jonathan Poyourow, to address the issues. Post-season testing allows athletes to better prepare meals or food intake for the next season. It also allows sports medicine and health services to better identify medical issues. 

The students conducting these tests are trained to use the device used in their respective majors whether that be Exercise and Sports Science or Dietetics and Applied Nutrition. They then assist with a few until they understand the process. 

Some of the athletes also received electrocardiograms, or EKGs. These were performed by Ray Spradlin, Ph.D., an Exercise and Sports Science professor at JWU. “EKGs are a diagnostic technique to identify any abnormalities in the electrical activity of the heart,” Spradlin said. This service was provided to student athletes at no cost in order to ensure that they didn’t have an underlying condition preventing them from participating in their sport. 

Spradlin described the process of this evaluation, which consists of electrodes being placed in ten specific locations on the torso and abdomen to view twelve different angles of the heart. After the electrodes are placed, there are wires that are attached to the athlete and connected to a receiver. This then transmits the electrical activity between the electrodes and the heart with one electrode on the lower abdomen, which is used to reduce any background noise/electricity. A reading of ten seconds is recorded and printed out for the athlete to pass along to a team physician to review. 

The Athlete Experience

Darian Shepherd ’25, a Business Administration student, got to experience the BOD POD in September with her field hockey team. She was curious about where her body composition was in terms of fat-free mass at the beginning of the season, and she wanted a benchmark to compare that to at the end of the season. She finds that the BOD POD was an extremely helpful tool for her and her team as they were able to utilize it. It measured different parts of her body composition such as body fat percentage, lean muscle, total body density, and more. It helped her learn how much fat she held compared to muscle as well as her weight.

“Chef Poyourow was sure to explain everything in detail before we got started and during the evaluation if we had questions,” Darian said. "It only took a few minutes per person and was something I will be setting up again in the future!” The evaluation was especially beneficial for Darian because she is a fitness coach, and someone who loves to lift weights. “At the beginning of season, I felt I was at a healthy physique, but the BOD POD helped reveal where I truly was,” she shared. “It showed me where I would have to focus my attention for the end of season to get to my goal body composition,” she said. 

Cameron Martin ’26, a Culinary Nutrition major at JWU, also took part in this performance evaluation as a member of the Men's Ice Hockey team. He let me know about the process he underwent for this evaluation on November 1st this year. “So basically, I was in minimal, tight-fitting clothing and I had to put on a cap to cover my hair, so it helped the measurements. Then I had to sit in the BOD POD and make sure I didn't move at all and let it work its magic. It took around two minutes for it to record me just sitting there. It was cool,” said Cameron. “It was pretty beneficial, I'd say, because it helps me understand where I am physically based on my number, and what I can do to get to where I want in terms of body fat percentage for my sport and to be healthy.” 

Carly McCrumb ’25, Culinary Nutrition major, and goalie for the JWU Women’s Soccer team, was able to give her perspective on the performance evaluations and how they have helped her better understand her body. She was first evaluated during the team’s preseason time to evaluate her numbers strictly from working out in the summer and to prepare for the season. She went back after the season ended to see how her numbers changed. 

The process itself according to Carly is seamless as she was part of a group of teammates for the first time being evaluated and then decided to contact Professor Ullucci for another individual evaluation. “It was super simple, just making sure you don't have any jewelry on, putting on a cap, and then just sitting in the machine. It takes no time at all,” she said. 

She felt that as a Culinary Nutrition major, these evaluations reinforced her knowledge of I'm what it takes to fuel her body, especially as she wants a career in athletics and making sure that athletes are eating what they need for the body composition they should have.  

“I understand how my body works and how much food I need to maintain muscle mass and not lose muscle due to how much activity we're doing, because we do burn an insane amount of calories,” Carly said. “If you're not fueling yourself properly, the numbers will show that from using the BOD POD. My numbers didn't fluctuate a ton, but I came in with a slightly higher body fat percentage. Then after the season, my evaluation showed that I dropped in body fat percentage but also gained more of that fat- free flowing mass, so I gained muscle and lost body fat.”  

This experience not only helped her understand her body composition better but will aid her in her sports performance nutrition internship position at the UFC headquarters in Las Vegas next semester. She will use performance evaluations to determine the diets and nutrition that athletes need.  

The Student Facilitator Experience

Harmony Chicoose ’25 was one of the ESS students that facilitated evaluations for student athletes. She is also an athlete on the Women’s Hockey team, so she has been on both sides of the process. “We worked with the BOD POD, which measures your body composition including your fat to muscle mass ratio. I have conducted the evaluation myself through the computer attached to it. This means calibrating the machine, helping the participants understand what each component means. There's a program for it on the computer, so I'll just go through with each participant, and explain why we're doing what we're doing, follow along with the program, get them to sit in it, and then go over the results once the test is complete.” 

Harmony found that having a lab practical like this helped familiarize her with information relative to what athletic physical therapists and athletic trainers do and use. She can use this information in the future and knows the purpose of experiments like this and what they do for an athlete or individual. “I play ice hockey, so I know that the Wingate test, for example, is very beneficial to our sport. The BOD POD helps measure your body composition, which could be good for tracking whether training or conditioning programs are efficient for that athlete. I think it's been incredibly beneficial and will continue to help me throughout my career in the future,” she said. 

This experience was especially cool for Harmony as she was able to work with her own team and has the perspective of a student athlete. “Being able to perform these evaluations on my own hockey team was unique because I was able to learn with them. Now I understand the benefits of tests like this as a student and as an athlete.”  

The Exercise Sports and Science program hopes to continue to do these tests and provide the possibility for all student athletes to be evaluated on their performance before, during and after their respective seasons.

Apply to JWU

Transfer to JWU

Visit JWU