The Higher Performance Lab
Interest in exercise and performance has never been higher. Fitness professionals are increasingly expected to understand not only how bodies move, but how people think, feel, learn, and perform under pressure. At the same time, educators, coaches, and organisations are paying more attention to wellbeing, cognition, and mental health, often without clear guidance on how physical activity actually fits into that picture.
The problem is not a lack of information. It is that the science is often siloed.
Research in exercise science, neuroscience, psychology, and education tends to live in separate spaces, use different language, and target different audiences. As a result, important findings about how physical activity supports brain health, cognition, behaviour, and learning rarely make it into everyday practice, or they get simplified into slogans that do not reflect the evidence.
The Higher Performance Lab exists to help bridge that gap.
We bring together perspectives from exercise science and education to explore how physical activity supports social, mental, and cognitive health, and how this knowledge can be applied in real-world settings. With complementary training and experience, Ayden McCarthy (PhD, Exercise Science) and Josh Wedlock (PhD, Linguistics and Education) work at the intersection of movement, learning, and performance.
Our focus is not limited to elite sport or peak optimisation. Performance matters in the gym and on the sports field, but it also matters in classrooms, workplaces, and daily life. Being able to focus, regulate emotions, learn efficiently, interact well with others, and sustain effort over time are all performance outcomes, and they are shaped, in part, by how we move.
Across both our courses and this blog, we explore performance through a broad, evidence-informed lens. This includes close attention to what we often refer to as the Big 5: sleep, nutrition, social connection, physical activity, and the environments people live and work in. Rather than treating these factors in isolation, we are interested in how they interact and how small, practical changes can support better outcomes.
This blog is a key part of that mission.
Here, we break down current research in exercise science, brain health, and educational science into short, accessible posts designed to be read, understood, and used. Each piece highlights key findings, explains why they matter, and offers practical takeaways without overselling claims or drifting into trend-driven advice. No hype, no shortcuts, just clear, evidence-informed discussion grounded in peer-reviewed research and professional experience.
In addition to our own writing, we will also feature guest posts and interviews with experts from a range of fields, offering different perspectives on performance, health, learning, and wellbeing.
If you are a fitness professional looking to better understand the brain, an educator interested in the role of movement in learning, or simply someone curious about how physical activity supports brain health and cognitive function, this space is for you.