Health & Well-Being
Background to the Research Field
Health and well-being are more than the absence of illness. The World Health Organization describes health as a state of physical, mental, and social well-being, emphasizing that these dimensions interact in everyday functioning and quality of life. Well-being itself is often framed as a positive resource for daily life, shaped not only by individual factors but also by social, economic, and environmental conditions.
In sport and movement related contexts, health and well being are dynamic processes that evolve across training, competition, work, and everyday life. Physical activity can promote physical fitness, cognitive functioning, and emotional stability, but it also introduces physical load, psychological pressure, and recovery demands. Whether individuals benefit from these demands or experience overload depends on how stress, regeneration, and support systems are balanced over time. From youth athletes to older adults, maintaining this balance is essential for sustained performance, participation, and quality of life.
Importantly, well-being is not limited to elite sport. The same mechanisms that support resilience, motivation, and recovery in performance settings are relevant in clinical, educational, and public health contexts. Understanding how people respond to stressors, adapt to physical and mental challenges, and regain functional capacity after setbacks is therefore central to promoting long term health and autonomy across the lifespan.
Projects within the Research Field
Age-associated deterioration in balance abilities results in a range of mobility impairments such as standing up, turning around, sitting down. In worst-case scenarios, this can lead to heavy falls which can be particularly detrimental to elderly populations. To evaluate mobility impairments in the elderly, the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test is a commonly used test, usually measured by a stopwatch. Together with Prof. Dr. Clemens Becker, Head of the Digital Geriatrics Department at the Heidelberg University Hospital, Melissa Böttinger and mHealthTechnologies, we have developed the Up&Go app, which allows users to do the TUG test with your smartphone. The app is user friendly, and the test is explained to the user before the trial begins. Besides a smartphone, all you need is a chair, a bottle, and enough space. The app evaluates in the form of a traffic light system.
The app can only be downloaded in Germany.
Download the App:
Cope4Growth, Mental Fitness and Stress Competence
Cope4Growth is an applied mental fitness program developed and implemented in collaboration with universities. The project transfers evidence based strategies from applied sport psychology into higher education, with a focus on strengthening stress competence and functional coping in student populations.
Delivered as an interactive teaching format, the program helps students identify typical academic stressors, reflect on their coping behaviors, and develop practical strategies to manage pressure more effectively. The overarching goal is prevention: promoting mental well being and resilience in university settings before chronic stress leads to health impairments, disengagement, or study dropout.
