Exercise runs employed and studied (7)
I believe the answer is:
perused
'studied' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'exercise runs employed' is the wordplay.
'exercise' becomes 'pe' (Physical Education).
'runs' becomes 'r' (cricket abbreviation).
'employed' becomes 'used' ('use' can be a synonym of 'employ').
'pe'+'r'+'used'='PERUSED'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for perused that I've seen before include "Studied" , "Browsed" , "Scanned" , "Read (something) very carefully" .)