Growing awareness of the role that fitness and conditioning play in promoting wellness, preventing disease, and improving athletic performance — as well as the importance of exercise after illness or medical intervention — translates into a range of career opportunities in clinical exercise science.

In our program you’ll gain a broad foundation in the liberal arts and in the basic and applied sciences while learning such essential clinical procedures as measuring strength and flexibility, assessing blood pressure, evaluating neuromuscular function, analyzing cardiac and pulmonary function, and prescribing individualized exercise programs.

To apply that knowledge, you may work in the Robert R. Colbert Sr. Wellness Clinic right on campus. This unusual opportunity allows you to gain real-world, practical experience in promoting wellness to staff and faculty members of Ithaca College. Fieldwork and internships — including hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation, corporate fitness, or strength and conditioning for athletes — are a crucial part of every student’s education.

You can tailor your curriculum to specialize in personal training, strength and conditioning coaching, cardiac rehabilitation, youth or geriatric fitness, or fitness program management. Optional minors in such areas as nutrition or gerontology can also help focus your studies.

With a clinical exercise science degree, you’ll be prepared to take external certification examinations such as those offered by the American College of Sports Medicine or the National Strength and Conditioning Association, to attend medical school or graduate school in the allied health professions, or to pursue an advanced degree in exercise science, health and fitness management, or related fields. Our graduates are employed in a wide variety of occupations and work environments — as physician assistants, exercise physiologists, strength and conditioning coaches, or pharmaceutical representatives — in private, corporate, athletic, and health care settings.