Exercise Science

Exercise science is the science of human movement and the associated functional responses and adaptations. Students who are studying exercise sciences learn how to help people live healthier lives through exercise, physical rehabilitation, and nutrition. Sub-fields within exercise science may include sports management, athletic training, pre-physical therapy, and almost always kinesiology (the mechanics and anatomy of human movement, the most science oriented of the subfields).

As a field of academic study, exercise science grew from the physical culture movement of the 1800s, whose goal was to improve the health of the working class through dance and sports. Early university programs were created before 1900 such as the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Physical Training at Harvard University. While this program focused on science training and premedical studies, that aspect diminished and the growth was in physical education programs in universities in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. Another push for growth in this field came after World War I, and again after World War II, because there were concerns about the number of young men who failed physical fitness tests for entry into the military or during military training.

Another indicator of growth for the field was the creation of the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory in 1927, which many experts view as the beginning of the field of exercise physiology. Another important aspect of the history of the field was using research to disprove a number of misunderstandings about exercise that had once been widely believed. In the 1930s and 1940s, many experts argued that weight training would slow an athlete and most athletic coaches banned weight training. In the same period, high-volume endurance training was thought to be bad for the heart. By the 1950s and 1960s, exercise was thought to be helpful to some age groups of people but not all, and exercise was not recommended for older people and endurance exercise was thought to be harmful to women. These ideas have now been disproved.