Manchester Institute of Health and Performance
I spent Thursday at the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance. I wasn’t there to monitor, measure or improve any aspect of my sporting performance or health but on a User Day run by IPRS Mediquipe. I was there in my sport and exercise science lab technicians hat rather than as an athlete. I drove up to Manchester the evening before, had a nice dinner in the restaurant alongside the Premier Inn that I stayed in and then drove through Manchester to the impressive looking building of the MIHP. Once inside it was clear from the sign alongside the lift that this was quite a facility.
MIHP
Admittedly the Sport & Exercise Science building that I work in at Aberystwyth University has many of these facilities itself. Biomechanics labs, Physiology labs, 3D motion capture labs, Environmental Chamber, Phlebotomy and even a Dexa Body Composition Scanner are all part of our offerings. I guess we have consulting rooms, offices, lecture theatres, seminar rooms, research offices and performance analysis facilities too. We could even count our staff kitchen as an athlete lounge if we wanted to. If you take the campus as a whole then we have plenty of other offerings too. Cryotherapy and Hydrotherapy are a little out of our league, but we do have an ice bath. We can do ECG tests we don’t quite offer full on cardiac screening with our own cardiac specialists. Nor do we have ultrasound or X-ray facilities. We most definitely don’t have an MRI scanner! Not only this, but the scale of this place is a little different to ours as well. The strength and conditioning gym is huge.
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- Gym
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- Gym
There’s a full indoor 3G pitch with 3D motion capture cameras all around it.
3G Pitch
The hydrotherapy suite is bigger than most.
Hydroptherapy
Built in 2015 everything feels brand spanking new too which is nice.
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- Motion Capture
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- Environmental Chamber
With facilities like this, the athletes and sports people that are lucky enough to have the opportunity and can afford to make use of them can’t fail to improve their performance. I was a little envious on two levels. First I’d love to have the opportunity to measure, monitor and improve my performance using such facilities. I’d have to be a little fitter than I am at the moment, but I’m sure such facilities would be invaluable for performance monitoring, injury diagnosis, rehab and prevention and just boosting motivation. Secondly, it would be a pretty cool place to work, either as a Sports and Exercise scientist, consultant or as I am now just a lab technician. Nice that is if it were in Aberystwyth and not the middle of Manchester of course!
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Looks impressive but not much opportunity for a quick dip in the sea though xx
Hope the visit was successful .