In 1961, he returned to Springfield College as a Research Assistant Professor which meant to a post-doctoral position with Professor Peter V. Karpovich while directing his research laboratory and teaching exercise physiology lecture and laboratory courses to undergraduate and graduate students. His memorable moments were replacing Dr. Philip D. Gollnick as Karpovich's assistant; conducting research on the influence of light and heavy leg exercise on quadriceps femoris reflex time; investigating movement patterns of normal and abnormal individuals using electrogoiometric methods, and being highlighted in Time magazine for conducting movement research on women wearing high heels.
Two years later, he accepted a joint appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Education �Men and in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics with teaching and research responsibilities while developing a rigorous Ph.D. program in exercise physiology. With support from Professor Louis E. Alley and funds from the Graduate College, National Defense Education Act, and the National Institute of Health, an inter disciplinary graduate program was established involving courses within the Department Of Physical Education-Men, all the Basic Science Departments in the College of Medicine and with the Department of Zoology. Initially, the retention rate of the program was low; however, with time it became higher and competitive which resulted in most graduates receiving appointments in Research I institutions. Professor Tipton established an Exercise Physiology Laboratory which essentially utilized animal models to Investigate mechanisms associated with acute and chronic exercise. During his 21 years at the University of Iowa with continuous support from the University, Iowa health or medical associations, or Federal sources, he studied sympathetic and cholinergic mechanisms for the bradycardia of training; rates from isolated hearts; response of ligaments and tendons to exercise, immobilization or surgical repair; the anatomical and physiological effects from animals devoid of hormones from the anterior pituitary gland, the adrenal glands or from the pancreas, and VO2 max measurements from rodents to use for exercise prescription and evaluation purposes. To resolve a controversy created by the Iowa Medical Society, he conducted an Iowa Wresting Study to determine a minimal wrestling weight for Iowa scholastic wrestlers. Although his research and involvements found a scientific solution that became implemented on a national level in 2005, it required 38 years and even then, the State of Iowa was mandated by a national organization to accept his original recommendations.
In 1984 Professor Tipton accepted the position as Head of the newly created Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Arizona and was responsible for creating an undergraduate curriculum and major for their students. Because of financial and political problems, the department was abolished in 1993 and the faculty, as well as its undergraduate model, became amalgamated into the Department of Physiology within the College of Medicine. Again with support from local health organizations or from Federal Agencies, he conducted research on the acute and chronic effects of exercise on blood pressure using genetic models for hypertension and reported that habitual isometric exercise did not increase the incidence of strokes or a significant elevation in blood pressure with stroke prone genetic hypertensive rats. With simulated microgravity (tail suspended model), he investigated exercise performance, VO2 max changes , degree of muscular atrophy, blood flow alterations, modifications in temperature regulation, and glucose metabolism. His laboratory was the first to report that VO2 max was significantly decreased after suspension and, in a 1-legged simulated model, that the soleus muscle in the weight bearing leg demonstrated EMG activity and exhibited no evidence for atrophy. Although in 1998 he was accorded emeritus status, he continues to be active in professional matters.
Professor Tipton has been a member of APS since 1967 and has served on the Membership Committee; the Publication's Committee as a member and as Interim Chairman; Program Advisory Committee; Section Advisory Committee; Chair of the Environmental and Exercise Section; Chair of the History of Physiology Group and as a member of Council. He has been a reviewer of APS journals, member of the Journal of Applied Physiology Editorial Board, and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Physiology and for Advances in Physiology Education. He was the Chair of the Committee that formed the Arizona Physiological Society (AzPS) and the author of the 1998 "play" that starred APS members to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the American Journal of Physiology. It continues to receive mixed reviews.
Within APS, he has received the Honor Award from the Environmental and Exercise Section and the Orr E. Reynolds Award. Outside of APS, he has been The Editor- In-Chief for Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise; an Honor Award recipient; honored with a Charles M. Tipton Award for a Graduate Student Research Award and a President for the American College of Sports Medicine. Tipton received the Excellence in Education Award from the Gatorade Sport Science Institute and was recognized with a Founders Award by the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology Research.