The world’s first course to bring integrative thinking into sport and exercise nutrition
In the context of health and human performance, the word ‘integrative’ takes on pivotal meanings. Rather than simply viewing food as ‘fuel’, we must honour the incredible sophistication of nature, and recognise that our day-to-day dietary choices have the power to nourish all of our mind-body systems. Gastrointestinal, immune, detoxification, musculoskeletal, neuroendocrine, bioenergetic, and mental-emotional health all integrate with one another to such a degree that their function is completely inter-dependant.
Another use of the word ‘integrative’ pertains to the interaction of ‘professional perspectives’, meaning that different practitioners can add value to an athletic client’s experience by supporting them in different ways. With this in mind, the Centre for Integrative Sports Nutrition (CISN) teachings draw from a diverse set of clinically experienced lecturers; this team approach is designed to help you to build your own clinical experience and unique perspectives.
The main paradigm that has existed within the academic enquiry of sports nutrition for the past half century has centred around the conviction that macronutrients are required as ‘fuel’ for exercise endeavours. This notion provides an important basis of quantitative nutritional support, but what happens, for example, when your active client lacks adequate digestive health to assimilate these foods, and in the process creates an inflammatory tone in his or her body?
The central thesis of integrative sports nutrition (within all CISN courses and modules) is ‘health feeds performance’.
By consuming highly nourishing foods in a personalised way, your athletic client should experience increased health resilience. By also helping them to manage their life loads, reduce toxic exposure, balance training demands, and carefully choose bespoke supplementation, they can better tolerate demanding performance-focused strategies, and optimise training adaptations.
Integrative and functional thinking in health is not a new notion. It has been visibly incorporated in medicine since the 1980s, and long before this time within traditional practices. How this evolving discipline of integrative sports nutrition came about was that CISN founder, Ian Craig, was asked to deliver a postgraduate sports nutrition module by a nutritional therapy institute in 2007. At the time, he could not find a suitable textbook for the course, so he set about bridging the principles from integrative and functional medicine into conventional sports nutrition teachings. Since that time Ian has developed and delivered an array of integrative courses and conferences, edited the Functional Sports Nutrition magazine, and built up extensive clinical practice. These experiences eventually culminated in the launching of the CISN Certificate of Integrative Sports Nutrition course in 2018, which has since diversified towards our current portfolio of courses and modules.
CISN is the first (and currently only) organisation to apply integrative thinking into the context of sport and exercise nutrition.
Our key objective is to train and mentor sport, exercise and nutrition professionals, plus students of these subjects, to embrace the complexity and individuality of an exercising person: to nourish an athlete’s health and performance through an expansive way of integrative thinking.
Within the context of heavy training loads, often alongside significant life stresses, practitioners trained in this way can support the robust health and performance of active individuals in a personalised way. Not only should this approach maximise an athletes’ potential sporting success, but it can extend the length of their athletic careers, plus provide them with tools to maintain active health throughout their lives.
Read more about integrative sport and exercise nutrition, read the article by Ian Craig
The Centre for Integrative Sports Nutrition hosts an array of sports nutrition educational opportunities, all taught from a base of integrative thinking and applied practice in mind. You can choose a short immersion, such as our 4-week short course and specialty modules that are intended for professional development (CPD/CEU). Or you can attend our well respected practitioner-focussed certificate course or our flagship Level 7 (postgraduate equivalent) 1 to 2 year diploma course.
Our short course provides a great introduction to integrative sports nutrition, and is taught over four weeks. It is ideal for students and practitioners of nutrition and exercise, who follow the ethos that health feeds performance, and who wish to progress their knowledge of integrative sports nutrition.
Our certification course is a deeper immersion into the world of integrative sports nutrition, run part time over approximately 9 months. It is made up of the Integrative Body Systems and Applied Performance Nutrition modules, along with two specialty units of your choosing.
Our Level 7 diploma course is an industry accredited postgraduate level training, run over a 1 to 2 year period. It consists of the Integrative Body Systems and Applied Performance Nutrition modules, along with four specialty units of your choosing, a practitioner mentoring programme and a research project.
We have a growing array of specialty modules for purposes of professional development (CPD/CEU):
CISN (the Centre for Integrative Sports Nutrition) trains and mentors exercise and nutrition professionals to manage an athlete’s health and performance through an expansive way of integrative thinking.
We bridge the gap between what has historically been two very separate disciplines: conventional sports and performance nutrition, and the integrative/functional medicine and nutritional therapy approach.
At CISN we believe that if an athlete is to achieve their performance goals, they must firstly build a solid foundation of optimal health. This doesn’t just enable them to perform well in one race, one competition, or one season – but to perform well for life.
Is the founder of the Centre for Integrative Sports Nutrition. With his joint academic backgrounds in exercise physiology and nutritional therapy, and an extensive sports grounding as a middle-distance athlete and coach, he has been developing the concept of integrative sport and exercise nutrition for the past twenty years. This is a fast-evolving discipline that considers both the health and performance of an athlete from an integrative health perspective.
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The Short Course and all specialty modules, are approved by the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT®) to provide Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits for Nutritional Therapy Practitioners.
“The Centre for Integrative Sports Nutrition is accredited by the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists℠ (BCNS℠) to provide Nutrition Professional Continuing Education (NPCE) credits for Certified Nutrition Specialists® (CNS®).
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