Dr Lygeri Dimitriou, BSc, MSc, PGCHE, PhD is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Physiology. She is a co Programme leader for the MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition and the leader for the MSc in Sport and Exercise Sciences (Physiology pathway). Lygeri has been employed at Middlesex University since May 2004. She has also delivered exercise physiology and immunology training workshops to both athletes and coaches across a variety of sports, and is actively engaged in research and consultation with high profile athletes and teams.
Greek, English
Lygeri currently module leads and teaches on MSc modules in Sport and Exercise Physiology. These modules focus on developing mastery in a range of contemporary laboratory techniques, used in the assessment of human physiology at rest and in response to acute and chronic exercise, and on designing, defending and delivering evidence-based training programmes and battery of tests, conducting research, analysing and interpreting data and reporting results.
She has one successful PhD completion and also supervises three PhD students and several MSc students on Strength and Conditioning Science, Sport and Exercise Nutrition and Sport and Exercise Physiology.
In the past eleven years module led and taught on the following undergraduate and postgraduate modules:
Lygeri’s specific research revolves around three areas of sport and exercise physiology that have important implications for athletic performance and recovery, military dropout rates and medical discharge, fatigue, immunodepression, upper respiratory illness, pulmonary inflammation and injury.
The first deals with the acute and chronic effects of physical training/activity and/or competition on immune function and status, muscle damage, inflammatory response, oxidative stress, cortisol levels, measured in blood and/or saliva, and the mood state of competitive athletes, marathoners, military recruits, and Everest climbers.
The second deals with the investigation of the effects of cryotherapy and antioxidant supplements on muscle adaptation, markers of muscle and metabolic damage, immunity, pulmonary inflammation, respiratory symptoms and recovery following prolonged exhaustive exercise and resistance training .
The third deals with the female athlete triad and some of its features such as osteoporosis, low bone mineral density and stress fractures, low energy availability, underweight, intentional weight loss, eating disorders, menstrual dysfunction, late menarche, in a wide range of competitive athletes and professional dancers.
Difranco, Isabella and Cockburn, Emma and Dimitriou, Lygeri and Paice, Katherine and Sinclair, Scott and Faki, Tanwir and Hills, Frank and Gondek, Marcela B. and Wood, Alyssa and Wilson, Laura J. (2022) A combination of cherry juice and cold water immersion does not enhance marathon recovery compared to either treatment in isolation: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living , 4 . pp. 1-11. ISSN 2624-9367
Wilson, Laura J. and Dimitriou, Lygeri and Hills, Frank and Gondek, Marcela B. and van Wyk, Aléchia and Turek, Vlad and Rivkin, Taylor and Villiere, Alexandre and Jarvis, Paul and Miller, Stuart C. and Turner, Anthony N. and Cockburn, Emma (2021) Cold water immersion offers no functional or perceptual benefit compared to a sham intervention during a resistance training program. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , 35 (10). pp. 2720-2727. ISSN 1064-8011
Wilson, Laura J. and Dimitriou, Lygeri and Hills, Frank and Gondek, Marcela B. and van Wyk, Aléchia and Turek, Vlad and Rivkin, Taylor and Villiere, Alex and Jarvis, Paul and Miller, Stuart C. and Turner, Anthony N. and Cockburn, Emma (2020) A pilot study to determine whether repeated post-exercise cryotherapy exposure augments physiological and perceptual responses to cold. In: 25th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, 28 - 30 Oct 2020, Virtual (due to Covid-19), initial venue Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain.
Norum, Martin and Risvang, Linn Christin and Bjørnsen, Thomas and Dimitriou, Lygeri and Rønning, Per Ola and Bjørgen, Morten and Raastad, Truls (2020) Caffeine increases strength and power performance in resistance‐trained females during early follicular phase. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports , 30 (11). pp. 2116-2129. ISSN 0905-7188
Girling, William and Pujdak, Mikolaj and Dimitriou, Lygeri and van Wyk, Aléchia and Vidal, Marina and Peterca, Jost and Curtis, Christopher and Paice, Katherine (2019) The effect of carbohydrate dose and timing on timed effort and time to exhaustion within a simulated cycle race in male professional cyclists. In: British Association of Sport Exercise Sciences: BASES Conference 2019, 19 - 20 Nov 2019, Leicester, UK.
Lygeri has worked on a number of grant funded projects from the Royal Ballet Company, English National Ballet Company, British Olympic Association and the Cellular Nutrition Research Group, University of Oxford investigating the prevalence of low bone mineral density into athletes and dancers and the immune response to exercise.
Lygeri has been involved in various sport and exercise physiology and immunology research projects and consultation with organisations such as British Triathlon, English Institute of Sport, UK Athletics, British Army, Royal Ballet Company, English National Ballet, Everest team, IPRO Ltd, Queens Park Rangers Football Club, Saracens Rugby Club, West Ham Football Club and the Newham High Performance Athletes Program.
She has also consulted with TV Channel 4 (three-part programme: Ian Wrights Unfit Kids) and Radio BBC 6 (5-day programme: You are unfit and you know it on health and fitness campaigns to improve the general health and fitness in children and adults.
