Australian physical therapist
Kusal Goonewardena is an Australian physical therapist and health lecturer known for being founder and Head of Sports Medicine at Elite Akademy,
University of Melbourne .
[1] He has authored several books and is a fitness expert on
ABC Radio National 's
Life Matters program.
Early life and education
Kusal Goonewardena was born in
Sri Lanka . He had his primary education at
Nalanda College, Colombo .
[2]
[3] His family travelled often during his childhood, as his father was an engineer who worked for the
United Nations . They lived in
Zambia ,
England ,
Oman and
Bangladesh before settling down in Australia when Kusal was nine.
[4]
Kusal Goonewardena earned a
bachelor's degree in
physiotherapy from the University of Melbourne in 1999.
[5] He earned his
Master of Physiotherapy from
La Trobe University in 2007.
[6] He specializes in
sports physiotherapy and
high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
[7]
[8]
Career
Physical therapy
In 1999, Goonewardena founded Vigor Sport Medicine, a chain of fitness clinics in
Melbourne which double as teaching clinics for La Trobe University and Melbourne University.
[9] He also runs clinics in
Bacchus Marsh and
Melton, Victoria .
[10]
He became a team physiotherapist for University of Melbourne in 2002, and has been Head of Sports Medicine for the
UniSport Nationals ' University of Melbourne team since 2008.
[11] In an interview with
The Age , Goonewardena stated that he wanted "to give something back to the University that gave me a great grounding in my career".
[5]
He was the head of the medical team for University of Melbourne during the 2009
Australian University Games ,
[11] and is the official provider for the university's Elite Athlete Program.
[12] In this capacity he is known for working with Australian athletes such as
Katya Crema ,
Lachlan Norris ,
Phoebe Stanley ,
Jeff Tho and
Freddy Ovett .
[13] He is also the physical therapist of German tennis player
Laura Siegemund .
[4]
Goonewardena is the head physiotherapist of Elite Akademy, a training clinic based at University of Melbourne, which he founded in May 2012.
[14] The training clinic is part of the Nona Lee Sports Centre and works with
Olympic ,
Winter Olympic and national athletes from
Melbourne University Sport .
[15] He led the medical team for German tennis player
Laura Siegemund at the
2020 Australian Open . He then worked with Russian player
Vera Zvonareva at the
2022 Australian Open . Svonareva had been Siegemund's
tennis doubles partner at the 2020 Australian Open.
[16]
He has authored several books including 3 Minute Workouts (2015), Natural Healing: Quiet & Calm (2016) and Back Pain – 30 Days to Pain Free (2014). Goonewardena created the Kinrgize app with Elite Akademy in 2018, which allows users to track their fitness levels, workout regimens and sleeping habits.
[17]
Health expert and lecturer
Kusal Goonewardena has been the fitness expert on
ABC Radio National 's
Life Matters radio program since 2017.
[18] He has been featured as a health expert on The Informer with
George Donikian .
[19]
[20]
Goonewardena has also been a guest expert in publications such as
Body+Soul and
The Sydney Morning Herald .
[21]
[22]
Goonewardena was a board member of the
Entrepreneurs' Organization , an international nonprofit.
[23] In 2014, Goonewardena became a mentor at
The Founder Institute in Melbourne.
[24] That same year he co-presented "The Three Entrepreneurs", part of
Swinburne University of Technology 's Learning from Entrepreneurs series.
[25]
In 2015, Goonewardena was a
plenary speaker at the 8th International Research Conference at
KDU College in Malaysia.
[26]
Publications
Books
Articles
Robinson, Mark; Tan, Ying; Goonewardena, Kusal; Oetomo, Denny; Manzie, Chris (November 2021).
"Evaluation of ceiling-supported back harnesses in preventing injury in sheep shearing" . 2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) . Vol. 2021. pp. 6957–6961.
doi :
10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9629719 .
ISBN
978-1-7281-1179-7 .
PMID
34892704 .
S2CID
244573084 . with Robinson, Mark; Tan, Ying; Oetomo, Denny; and Manzie, Chris.
Guo, Xinliang; Lu, Lei; Robinson, Mark; Tan, Ying; Goonewardena, Kusal; Oetomo, Denny (18 June 2021). "A Weak Monotonicity Based Muscle Fatigue Detection Algorithm for a Short-Duration Poor Posture Using sEMG Measurements". 2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) . Vol. 2021. pp. 2238–2241.
arXiv :
2106.10109 .
doi :
10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9631010 .
ISBN
978-1-7281-1179-7 .
PMID
34891732 .
S2CID
235485201 . with Guo, Xinliang; Lu, Lei; Robinson, Mark; Tan, Ying; and Oetomo, Denny.
Lu, Lei; Robinson, Mark; Tan, Ying; Goonewardena, Kusal; Guo, Xinliang; Mareels, Iven; Oetomo, Denny (2020).
"Effective Assessments of a Short- Duration Poor Posture on Upper Limb Muscle Fatigue Before Physical Exercise" .
Frontiers in Physiology . 11 : 541974.
doi :
10.3389/fphys.2020.541974 .
hdl :
11343/252651 .
PMC
7579401 .
PMID
33132916 . with Robinson, Mark; Lu, Lei; Tan, Ying; Guo, Xinliang; Mareels, Iven; and Oetomo, Denny.
Robinson, Mark; Lu, Lei; Tan, Ying; Goonewardena, Kusal; Oetomo, Denny; Manzie, Chris (July 2020).
"Enabling context aware data analysis for long-duration repetitive stooped work through human activity recognition in sheep shearing" . 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) . Vol. 2020. pp. 87–90.
doi :
10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9175839 .
ISBN
978-1-7281-1990-8 .
PMID
33017937 .
S2CID
221385054 . with Robinson, Mark; Lu, Lei; Tan, Ying; Oetomo, Denny; and Manzie, Chris.
"Association Between Lipids, Statin & Cognition: Is timing the key?" .
Alzheimer's & Dementia . 15 .
Alzheimer's Association . July 2019.
doi :
10.1016/j.jalz.2019.06.3330 .
S2CID
204761022 . with Jian Chin, Tze; Szoeke, Cassandra; and Gorelik, Alexandra.
References
^ White, Sue (16 January 2015).
"The inside job ... in sport" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 30 June 2020 .
^
Sri Lankan-born physio going great guns Down Under
^
SL born physiotherapy expert to escort the medical team of the renowned tennis player to Aussieland…
^
a
b
"Sri Lankan-born physio going great guns Down Under" . Print Edition - The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka . Retrieved 26 June 2021 .
^
a
b Scott, David; Soderlind, Laura (January 2012). "Behind all great athletes...".
The Age .
^
"IPC to Host Australian Sports Physiotherapy Programme in SL" .
Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka) . 13 September 2019.
^
"How three minutes of exercise, twice a week could make you fit | WYZA Australia" . WYZA . Retrieved 29 July 2020 .
^
"The three-minute workout that could be as good as going to the gym for half an hour" . The Independent . 19 April 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2020 .
^ van Alkemade, Anne (June 2011). "A sporting chance". The Moorabool News .
^ Cozza, Andria (June 2011). "Test cricketers look to recruit physio's touch of magic". Melton Telegraph Express .
^
a
b "A week at the University Games". InMotion . Australian Physiotherapy Association: 32. December 2009.
^
"Health & Wellness" . Melbourne University Sport . Retrieved 28 July 2020 .
^
"Who's Kusal Goonewardena" . Elite Akademy . Retrieved 29 July 2020 .
^
"University's Elite Akademy wins excellence award" (PDF) . University of Melbourne . January 2013.
^
"Sports Medicine & Massage" . Melbourne University Sport . Retrieved 28 July 2020 .
"Elite Athlete Program" . Melbourne University Sport . Retrieved 28 July 2020 .
^ Amit, Naushad (26 December 2021).
"Kusal Goonewardena Going Places Down Under" .
Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) .
^ Thakar, Subrata (31 July 2018).
"New app uses physiotherapy, accountability to encourage users in losing weight" . AI In Healthcare .
^
"The Exercise Room: Fitness trends" . ABC Radio National . 8 May 2017.
"How to exercise at home" . ABC Radio National . 24 March 2020.
^ theinformer (8 April 2021).
"Healthy Ageing | Kusal Goonewardena | TheInformer" . TheInformer . Retrieved 26 June 2021 .
^ TheInformer (11 November 2020).
"Understand The Human Body | Kusal Goonewardena" . TheInformer . Retrieved 26 June 2021 .
^
"The 10 most common health and fitness questions – answered by experts" . bodyandsoulau . 21 January 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2020 .
^ Cain, Alexandra (29 May 2018).
"Oh my aching feet! How to stop long-term damage from standing" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 29 July 2020 .
^ Long, Christine (5 March 2015).
"How to make your first million" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 29 July 2020 .
^
"Great Startup Mentors Confirmed for the Melbourne Founder Institute" . The Founder Institute . Retrieved 28 July 2020 .
^
"The three entrepreneurs (AGSE Learning from Entrepreneurs)" . commons.swinburne.edu.au . Retrieved 28 July 2020 .
^
"How 'Real' Professionalism can Change a Nation: transcribed plenary speech of K Goonewardena" (PDF) . Proceedings - KDU . November 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2022 .