The StairMaster Fitness Handbook: A User's Guide to Exercise Testing and Prescription.

This handbook is an outgrowth of the StairMaster [R] Sports/Medical Products Inc corporate philosophy, which is to disseminate information about "sensible exercise." The editors' purpose is to provide individuals with a comprehensive review of critical issues pertaining to exercise. For the most part, the contributors display their mastery of the exercise literature by presenting the information in such a way that it could be used by the general public as well as by health professionals.

The premise of this text is that regular exercise can have medicinal properties. Under this assumption, the authors address the importance of exercise in health and disease, the physiological responses to exercise, and exercise prescription principles, Of the 15 chapters in the text, 5 chapters are devoted to various aspects of preexercise health screening and fitness testing, including consideration of cardiac risk factors and legal ramifications of graded exercise testing. As expected, the reader will find traditional discussions of the physiological basis for cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness. A unique feature of this book, however, is an inclusion of chapters on the psychological basis of exercise and closed-chain exercise. The chapter on closed-chain exercise refers primarily to its role in rehabilitation and seems out of place within the context of this book. Exercise prescription guidelines are addressed with relevance to personal exercise programs, patients with cardiac disease, and older individuals. Environmental and nutritional considerations for the exerciser are presented in the final 2 chapters. There are eight appendixes that provide a hodgepodge of information including a glossary, signs of overtraining, and sample exercise recording forms, to name a few.

Pedagogically, this handbook could have been organized better. Its value, however, rests with its common-sense approach to exercise science. Although some chapters are not geared for the layperson, the concise narrative, supplemented with summaries, points to remember, and tables, will allow the zealous individual to gain a functional understanding of most aspects of fitness and exercise. Additional figures would have made this handbook more appealing to the layperson, but the epilogue and appendixes partially make up for this shortcoming by providing other practical information. The editors also use the appendixes to describe the use of various StairMaster [R] exercise systems and to promote the corporation. Each chapter concludes with a current bibliography. Although this book is not indexed, it does have a list of tables and figures that precedes the table of contents.

There is something for everyone in this book. its brevity and common-sense approach will capture the attention of the general public. The health practitioner who has no background in exercise science may gain an up-to-date understanding of the basis for exercise testing and prescription. The exercise scientist, although not challenged with overwhelmingly new information, may be enlightened by the discussions on the psychology of exercise and nutrition and may gain an increased awareness of issues that are related to fitness testing validity and reliability.