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Personnel working in the Armed Forces, Emergency Services and certain industries are required to complete physically demanding job-tasks which often also have technical and cognitive requirements. Professor Sam Blacker has over 20 years’ experience conducting research to improve health and performance in physically demanding occupations. He has worked in industry and academia and is currently the co-lead of the Occupational Performance Research Group, which undertakes research projects for Defence, Emergency Services and Industry customers in the UK and overseas. These projects have included the development of role-related physical employment standards (PES), use of wearable sensors to quantify the physical demands of work and training, analysis of risk factors for injury and investigating nutritional strategies to support physical development and recovery. He was also Secretary of the NATO Human Factors and Medicine 269 Research Task Group (Combat Integration: Implications for Physical Employment Standards). This inaugural lecture will summarise research conducted in the laboratory and field which has informed evidenced-based interventions and changes to policy and practice for the safe and effective selection, training and work practices of personnel employed in physically demanding occupations.