Exercise physiology and its role in clinical sports medicine.

Abstract

Exercise physiology plays an important role in the practice of clinical sports medicine. Exercise physiology research has identified important effects of exercise on the body's systems, tissues, and cells. Ongoing research is investigating the role of exercise in subcellular, molecular, and chemical processes. Increasingly, sports medicine physicians and other practitioners are using the findings of this research to help athletes achieve peak performance, and nonathletes achieve better health through exercise. Many areas of sports medicine practice, including exercise testing, safety, performance evaluation, correction of training problems, and prevention of problems that affect specific populations (eg, older athletes, women, children), benefit from the application of exercise physiology theory and research. The continued demand for athletes at all levels to be better, faster, and stronger, combined with the national focus on getting all Americans involved in some form of physical activity, will require that sports medicine practitioners and exercise physiologists increasingly work together to optimize sports and exercise performance, health, and safety.