NYSI Physiologist - Marcus Lee
Marcus Lee, NYSI Sport Physiologist, preparing an athlete for a VO2 Max Test.
Q: Can you share with us when you started in NYSI and what sparked your interest in the job.
Marcus: I joined NYSI after I finished my Master’s, about 3 years ago. What got me interested is that I’ve always liked Sport Science as an athlete, so the next best thing was actually joining the staff to help build better athletes.
Q: Can you summarise your job scope and bring us through a typical day in your job?
Marcus: As a Sport Physiologist, I see myself as a “training programmer”. What we do is we give recommendations for certain training strategies or interventions that could be put in place to help increase the physical capacities of the athletes.
We do stuff like measuring their baseline fitness levels and putting together a programme to see how it changes over time.
Q: What is the favourite part of your job?
Marcus: The favourite part of my job is being able to work with athletes and coaches. The interactions that we get on a daily basis to understand the needs of the coaches, and to be creative in solving problems of the coaches. That’s interesting to me.
Q: Which testing equipment or method do you find the most interesting?
Marcus: The VO2 Max machine is probably the most interesting Sport Science equipment. It is used to measure your maximum oxygen consumption to assess your aerobic capacity or stamina.
Q: Have you utilised your knowledge from Physiology in your personal sporting endeavours?
Marcus: The most recent will be using High Intensity Interval Training to improve my own fitness. That’s one of the application of Sport Science to improve my own fitness level.
Q: Is there anything you would like to say to budding athletes in Singapore?
Marcus: The road is long, so all you need to do is to listen to your coaches, listen to the good people around you.
Take advice seriously, take education seriously, and take whatever help you are getting as a youth athlete seriously. Ultimately, this will help you improve your training capacity.
Marcus overseeing a 60 metre sprint test for an athlete.
Marcus giving athletes an introductory workshop on Physiology during a Taekwondo camp.
Watch the full video here: 5tOOvOuMsLA