Dr Christopher Fullerton

Having obtained a first-class degree in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Lincoln, I completed my PhD in Sport Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton under the supervision of Professor Andy Lane and Dr Tracey Devonport. I subsequently worked at the University of Kent with the late Professor Louis Passfield, focusing on endurance performance and training prescription. Our work applied scientific modelling to practical endurance performance, using the critical power concept to describe the relationship between power output and exercise duration and to provide a robust method for assessing performance capacity. This approach supported the prescription of exercise intensity, the evaluation of training adaptation, and the monitoring of performance changes over time. It also connected with work on training-load quantification, integrating the effects of exercise intensity and duration—a programme of research that anticipated concepts later formalised in the acute performance decrement model. I later held a Lectureship at the University of Kent before joining the University of Stirling in September 2023, where I continue to teach and supervise postgraduate research projects at both MRes and PhD levels.

Although my research is rooted in endurance performance, in recent years it has extended into broader areas of exercise and applied sport psychology, including work on group-based multimodal exercise for Parkinson’s, and supervision of doctoral research exploring transitions among student athletes.

My teaching and supervision are grounded in the belief that learning is most powerful when students can see how evidence connects with practice. I encourage students to question, reflect, and apply knowledge in ways that feel authentic to their interests and professional goals. In supervision, I see my role as a collaborator — supporting students to explore their ideas, challenge assumptions, and develop research that makes a tangible difference in sport and exercise settings.

My main line of research examines the psychophysiological regulation of endurance performance, focusing on how perceptions of effort, fatigue, and pain influence pacing and decision-making during sustained exercise. I am particularly interested in how athletes interpret interoceptive signals and integrate this information with behavioural control during endurance performance. From an integrated approach that combines psychological and physiological perspectives, this work treats endurance as a self-regulated process—one shaped not only by physiological capacity but also by the perception, motivation, and tolerance to discomfort that govern how athletes respond to internal cues. While my work to date has primarily taken a psychobiological perspective, I am increasingly interested in how these regulatory processes connect with the lived, meaning-making aspects of endurance performance.

By examining how athletes monitor and adjust their effort across different phases of exercise, my research aims to explain why performance often diverges from physiological predictions and to identify how perceptual mechanisms can be developed or supported through training.

In collaboration with colleagues and research students, this work uses perceptually anchored exercise models to bridge controlled laboratory study with applied endurance sport contexts. This approach allows detailed examination of pacing and performance regulation as fatigue develops, helping to approximate and inform real-world pacing and fatigue processes that characterise competitive endurance exercise.

I welcome enquiries from postgraduate students and practitioners interested in topics such as:

—Perception of effort and endurance regulation, including how interoceptive cues shape pacing and persistence

—Pacing and decision-making under fatigue, and their implications for training and competition strategy

—Psychophysiological monitoring and performance modelling, integrating perceptual and physiological data to inform athlete management

—Tolerance and adaptation to discomfort — encompassing both moment-to-moment regulation (tolerance) and training or experiential change (adaptation)

—Translation of psychophysiological principles into applied endurance coaching, bridging lab findings and field practice