Rate My Professor Belinda Parmenter

Professor Belinda Parmenter is a Professor and Discipline Lead for Sports and Exercise Science in the School of Health at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She is a clinical academic, accredited exercise scientist (AES), and accredited exercise physiologist (AEP) with Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA). Parmenter earned her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2012, investigating high-intensity progressive resistance training for patients with intermittent claudication from peripheral artery disease (PAD), for which she received the ESSA Medal for the most outstanding thesis in Exercise and Sports Science. She holds a Bachelor of Health Science in Exercise and Sports Science from Griffith University in 1996. With over 25 years of clinical experience, she specializes in assessing, prescribing, implementing, and supervising exercise for individuals at risk of or with cardiovascular disease.

Parmenter's research examines optimal exercise prescriptions to reduce cardiovascular risk and treat PAD, the effects of cardiovascular disease on aerobic capacity, muscle strength, and endurance, and exercise's role in symptom alleviation across the lifespan. Her current projects focus on improving incidental physical activity and promoting sustained sports and exercise participation from adolescence to adulthood. She collaborates with the Matilda Centre at the University of Sydney on eHealth interventions to increase physical activity and decrease sedentary behavior in adolescents and develops adult programs with the UNSW Medicine & Health Lifestyle Clinic. As co-founder and national chair of the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA) Peripheral Artery Disease Working Group, and a member of the SPHERE Cardiac and Vascular Clinical Theme Leadership Group, she contributes to national leadership in vascular health. Key publications include 'A systematic review of randomized controlled trials: Walking versus alternative exercise prescription as treatment for intermittent claudication' (Atherosclerosis, 2011), 'Resistance training as a treatment for older persons with peripheral artery disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis' (British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2020), and the 'Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA) position statement on exercise prescription for patients with peripheral arterial disease' (Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2014).