Dr. Jamie Burr

I have always had a passion for sport; as an athlete, a coach/trainer, and a fan. To me, however, it was never enough to simply understand who was the best based on their performance - I needed to understand why. What was it about a given athlete and their individual training or inherited physiology that gave them an edge? Similarly, I've long had an interest in understanding how the lifestyle decisions we make on a day-to-day basis (e.g. physical activity participation, choice of sport) affect our current health and risk for chronic disease.

My motivation and desire to pursue exercise science as a career really developed during my time as a graduate student at York University, where I was fortunate to train in the Human Performance Lab and Chronic Disease Unit. It was here that I developed expertise in fitness assessment and performance evaluation, testing professional and Olympic level athletes as well as firefighters and others working in physically demanding occupations. I also gained an understanding of the cardiometabolic alterations that occurred with exercise training, and the applications that this had for both health and performance.

My post-doctoral work in the Cardiovascular Physiology and Rehabilitation Lab at UBC allowed me to continue understanding the cardiovascular effects of novel exercise perturbations, including prolonged and adventure-based sport.

B.A. Honours, Kinesiology - Western
M.Sc. - York University
Ph.D. - York University
PDF - University of British Columbia

The mission of my laboratory is to help people get more from their body. This applies across the spectrum of age and activity: from the elite athlete pursuing gains in performance to the person at risk of chronic disease seeking improvements in health. We strive to accomplish this by gaining a better understanding of the physiological limits to optimal human body performance and the interactions with the physiological stressors of physical activity and exercise.

As such, my main research interests are thus split between two overlapping domains. In the realm of human performance, we are investigating novel training methods, interventions and supplements which may lead to an acute or prolonged adaptation and performance improvement. These include such things as blood flow restriction, training tools, and nutraceuticals. In regard to health, our main interests surround the effects of physical activity, sport, and exercise to alter cardiovascular form and function (e.g. arterial stiffness, endothelial function) and metabolic regulation (glucose control) with a focus on the impact on chronic disease risk and management.

Check out Google Scholar for an updated list (Burr - Google Scholar)

• Kin*3030 - Nutr. Exercise and Metabolism
• HK*3600 - Applied Human Kinetics I
• HK*4600 - Applied Human Kinetics II

Human Performance & Health Research Laboratory