Prof. Dr. Meaghan MacNutt

Affiliation: School of Health and Exercise Sciences, University of British Columbia (Canada)

Title of presentation: Sex and gender equity in sport science: looking back and moving forward

Biosketch: Dr. MacNutt is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Trained as an exercise and environmental physiologist, her work focuses on advancing equity in health and exercise science. Her research promotes physiology education that normalizes diversity while preparing future health professionals to become inclusive, equity-oriented practitioners. She also supports researchers in adopting inclusive approaches to study design, data collection, and communication. Dr. MacNutt regularly facilitates workshops on inclusive, trauma-informed teaching and research and currently leads a national effort to increase female representation in Canadian exercise physiology research.

Abstract: Despite decades of advocacy for inclusion, sex and gender inequities in sport science remain. Recent evidence indicates this is especially true in exercise physiology research where there are fewer female participants (median 13% per study) and fewer women researchers (27% of all authors) than in adjacent fields (Niazi et al 2026). Exercise physiology articles have poor adherence to Sex and Gender Equity in Research guidelines, and reporting practices consistently position males as the normative standard and females as “other”. This talk will explore what the exercise physiology literature can and cannot tell us about why these patterns persist in our discipline, while highlighting evidence-informed opportunities for improvement. Dr. MacNutt will also share emerging insights from a national community-engaged collaboration aimed at improving the inclusion of female participants in exercise physiology research. This initiative brings the Canadian exercise physiology community together in open, reflective dialogue so we can 1) better understand the complex factors sustaining the status quo, and 2) explore opportunities for collective action toward stronger, more inclusive science. Early conversations have identified common challenges, as well as opportunities for action across multiple interconnected levels of the research ecosystem. This talk will share progress on a Canadian roadmap for advancing female inclusion, and will reflect on early lessons about the challenges and opportunities of co-creating system-level change.

Prof. Dr. Brendon Stubbs

Affiliation: Comprehensive Center for Clinical Neurosciences and Mental Health (C3NMH), Medical University Vienna (Austria)

Title of presentation: Promoting physical activity in people with psychiatric disorders

Biosketch: Dr. Stubbs research examines how physical activity changes the course of depression and severe mental illness, from efficacy, mechanisms and reducing population burden. He chaired the Lancet Commission on protecting the physical health of people with mental illness and has led clinical guidelines for both the European Psychiatric Association and the World Psychiatric Association as first or senior author. For many years, he worked a physiotherapist and head of department at the South London and Maudsley supporting a range of populations with mental illness. Since 2021, he has been full time in research and currently holds positions at the Medical University of Vienna, University of Manchester and an Einstein Visiting Fellowship at the Charite in Berlin.  His research has been covered widely, with regular coverage from BBC News and Sky News, and features in outlets including The New York Times and TIME magazine. He was lead scientist for the Amazon Prime documentary Mind Games: The Experiment, which reached more than three million viewers across 30 countries.

Abstract: Adults with severe mental illness (SMI) face a 10- to 20-year reduction in life expectancy, largely due to heightened cardiometabolic diseases. Low levels of physical activity (PA) and prolonged sedentary behavior (SB) are modifiable risk factors that contribute to this mortality gap. Although strong evidence demonstrates that PA is safe and effective in improving psychiatric and physical outcomes, systematic integration into clinical practice remains limited. Nonetheless, recent meta-analyses show that structured PA, that is, exercise, produces moderate to large reductions in depressive and psychotic symptoms, as well as benefits for cognition, quality of life, and cardiometabolic health. Evidence also suggests that mentally passive SB, such as prolonged television viewing, are associated with poorer mental health outcomes. To move forward, physical activity should be individualized to each person's capabilities and preferences, emphasizing forms they find enjoyable. Two sessions of strength training weekly are advised, and greater mental health benefits typically arise from leisure or active travel PA. This talk will provide an overview of challenges and potential solutions to advancing the field and practical translation of physical activity in routine psychiatric practice.

Prof. Dr. Emeline von Craenenbroeck

Affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Antwerp University Hospital and University of Antwerp (Belgium)

Title of presentation: Physical activity and exercise in patients with cardiovascular disease and obesity

Biosketch: Dr. Van Craenenbroeck is a clinical cardiologist subspecialized in heart failure, transplantation and cardiogenetics at Antwerp University Hospital, where she coordinates the Heart Failure Clinic, and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp. She trained as a medical doctor and obtained her PhD in Medical Sciences at the University of Antwerp, and holds a Senior Clinical Investigator fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). Her research group within Cardiovascular Diseases Research (GENCOR) focuses on translational heart failure research, with major lines in cardiovascular adaptation to exercise training, cardio-oncology and cardiogenetics. She has authored more than 220 peer-reviewed publications, including in JAMA, The Lancet, Circulation and the European Heart Journal, and has been involved as principal or co-investigator in several international clinical trials, as well as in the development of ESC guidelines and consensus documents. Prof. Van Craenenbroeck chaired the EAPC Research Committee (2020-2024) and currently serves as a Nucleus Member for Primary Care and Risk Factor Management.

Abstract: Exercise intolerance is a hallmark of cardiovascular disease, cardiomyopathies and obesity, yet the mechanisms underlying the well-documented clinical benefits of exercise training remain incompletely understood. This talk will take a translational perspective, integrating in vivo and in vitro data from several international exercise trials to dissect how exercise training acts at both central (cardiac) and peripheral (vascular and skeletal muscle) levels to improve exercise capacity and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with heart failure, cardiomyopathies and obesity-related cardiovascular disease. Prof. Van Craenenbroeck will discuss how structured exercise training improves peripheral vascular function and skeletal muscle metabolism, highlighting mitochondrial and molecular adaptations as key mediators of training-induced benefit, alongside central cardiac adaptations relevant to conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and cardiac amyloidosis. These mechanistic insights will be placed in the context of obesity, where adipose tissue dysfunction, chronic low-grade inflammation and cardiometabolic remodeling interact with cardiovascular disease to further impair exercise capacity. By connecting bench-based mechanistic findings to data from clinical exercise trials, this talk aims to clarify why exercise works, and how a better understanding of these pathways can inform more personalized, mechanism-based exercise prescription across the spectrum of cardiovascular disease, cardiomyopathies and obesity.