Fitness for the Aged, Disabled, and Industrial Worker.

Fitness for the Aged, Disabled, and Industrial Worker This text is a collection of papers presented at the symposium of the International Council for Physical Fitness Research, held on September 5-7, 1988, in Osaka, Japan. Most of the articles are about studies that were conducted in Japan, in the area of physical education. The book is divided into three parts.

In the first part, Health and Fitness of the Aged, 22 papers are presented. Some of the topics covered are physiological responses to snow-shoveling, biomechanical analysis of walking in elderly women, physiological responses during exercise in older male runners, and the importance of successful aging.

Part 2, Health and Fitness of the Disabled, offers the reader interesting articles about the benefits of muscular exercises for myoelectric control of artificial limbs, stretching exercises for children with asthma, physical fitness of basketball players who use wheelchairs, and factors that limit the maximal aerobic power of children with a chronic disease. This section, composed of 10 articles, is the book's strongest and the one that would probably be of the most interest to physical therapy practitioners.

The third part, Health and Fitness of the Industrial Worker, contains 12 articles. Included are a review of literature conducted in the area of industrial fitness, a sample exercise program for increasing the health and physical fitness of workers in Japan, and an article describing the effects of a 10-year corporate fitness program on employee health. This section would be of interest to physical therapy practitioners working in the area of wellness and executive fitness.

Some of the articles in this book contain information that is very vague, and sometimes they provide few or no references. Other articles are very detailed and well-prepared, demonstrating that the studies are well-designed. Physical therapy practitioners and students who want more information in some or all of the above-mentioned areas may find this text of some benefit; however, I would recommend borrowing the book from the library instead of purchasing it. More experienced physical therapists would probably not find this book of any benefit in expanding their current base of knowledge.

Kaneko M. Champaign, IL 21825-5076, Human Kinetics Publishers, 1990, hardback, 290 pp, illus, $35