The Clinical Physiology of Physical Fitness and Rehabilitation.

The athletic superiority of Americans is now pretty much a myth, with Russia beginning to dominate the Olympics, even producing basketball teams and invading the gentlemanly sport of tennis. Not only military people, coaches, and those who devote their life to "physical education," but an increasingly obese leisure class has come to express an interest in physical fitness. This interest generally fades away when it is suggested that exercise might be something which they should indulge in personally. During World War II, great advances were made in systematic studies of performance. The concept of hypothetical "fitness" or "physical fitness" was dignified with the element of authority and scientific exactitude, and many fitness tests were developed. The outcome of all the fuss was that, while physical performance of any kind requires physique, a physiochemical readiness to make various motions, innate skill, and the additional facility which training brings, no sure method