The first textbook in exercise physiology has been published by Ferdinand Lagrange, Physiology of Bodily Exercise in 1889. Since that time, many unresolved issues have been challenged and the body of knowledge continues growing every day. The recent emergence of exercise biochemistry makes the field of exercise physiology even more complex and exciting and open new ways in the understanding of exercise, performance and health.

This handbook does not cover the entire field of exercise physiology and we try to make originality in mixing continuously both the integrative approach of physiology and the biocellular approach all along the book. Nine topics are described and discussed in the present handbook.

The book starts with three classical sections: muscle activity, respiration and cardiac physiology; with chapters dealing with general structure and functions, and chapters incorporating very updated information.

The fourth section is devoted to blood flow dynamics, blood circulation and vascular function and include some chapters that are rarely addressed in exercise physiology books, such as the influences of exercise on endothelium, vasomotor control mechanisms, coagulation, immune function and rheological properties of blood, and their influences on hemodynamics.

The sections five and six focused on the different methodological and technical ways to evaluate the aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and discussed the underlying concepts and utilities (for performance and health) of the different existing exercise tests.

The seventh and eighth sections deal with examples of environmental physiology and some causes of exercise sudden death in apparently healthy subjects.

In 1855, a physician named William H. Byford who was very interested in the healthfulness effects of exercise wondered why, for the most part, both the medical and physical education professions were largely unconcerned with exercise physiology. In an article entitled On the Physiology of Exercise in the American Journal of Medical Sciences, he noted that “Although the Importance of voluntary exercise has been recognized for centuries and prescribed to its most useful extent by many of the profession, its great practical advantages in a large number of diseases have not been appreciated to their full extent of all […] It is with a view to draw the attention of the profession to the importance of more research in this direction, that I wish to record my views upon the subject”. Fortunately, progress have been made in this area and although exercise rehabilitation programs are not easily available in every country of the world, more and more data comforts the fact that regular physical activity is a good way to improve health in disease or to prevent the appearance of diseases. The section nine is therefore logically devoted to the beneficial effects of exercise rehabilitation on ageing and different kind of diseases such as metabolic, respiratory, cardiovascular, hematological or viral diseases, and cancer. In addition, this section also discusses the usefulness of exercise testing to diagnose a disease or follow the effects of therapeutic interventions for a given disease.

This book is intended for advanced undergraduates with strong science backgrounds, researchers, physiologist and physician involved in the area of exercise physiology.

Philippe Connes, Olivier Hue, Stéphane Perrey