The Role of the Study of Exercise in Defining the Frontier of Integrative Biology

Gary A Iwamoto

doi:10.3389/fphys.2010.00142

Abstract

Of all the fields that comprise the physiological sciences, exercise is one of the hardest to categorize even though it is a common everyday experience for nearly everyone whether it is a formal exercise program or simply walking from one place to another. This familiarity makes the field understandable to the average person, but this familiarity also sometimes leads to an oversimplification of the complexity of the investigation of the physiological response to exercise. This is further complicated by the idea, as Tipton and Franklin (2006) point out, that exercise has different meanings for different people and is thus inherently diverse in terms of what one may think it consists of, as well as diverse in the lines of scientific inquiry that concern it.

Highlights

It is sometimes forgotten that fundamental definitions of life have exercise implicit in their very wording and includes “the energy that enables organisms to grow, reproduce, absorb and use nutrients, and evolve, and, in some organisms, to achieve mobility, express consciousness, and demonstrate a voluntary use of the senses” (Myers, 2009)
At the risk of overstating the obvious, Astrand and Rodahl’s (1986) classic Textbook of Work Physiology gently reminds the reader that while most physiology considers the organism at rest, the factor that sets exercise physiology apart is that it considers the organism in the performance of physical activity
These are comparatively simple ideas compared to the diversity of subject matter found within exercise physiology

Summary

Introduction

It is sometimes forgotten that fundamental definitions of life have exercise implicit in their very wording and includes “the energy that enables organisms to grow, reproduce, absorb and use nutrients, and evolve, and, in some organisms, to achieve mobility, express consciousness, and demonstrate a voluntary use of the senses” (Myers, 2009). It is incumbent upon each investigator to know that exercise physiology involves the study of many if not all of these systems.

Results

Conclusion