What is Exercise Physiology?
Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH, MAM, FASEP, EPC
Professor, Department of Exercise Physiology
The College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN 55811

The effort, boldness, and courage to define something is never easy.  It takes discipline and commitment bring something new into being.

Understanding “what is exercise physiology” isn’t easy, often confusing, perhaps always a challenge, but obvious, it is not.  I use the word “obvious” and, yet one must ask the question:  “Why isn’t it obvious?”  Specifically, why isn’t it obvious that the definition of exercise physiology isn’t “the study of acute and chronic adaptations to exercise?”  It should be, but it isn’t.  Even the smartest of the smart fail to get this point, thus allowing for unwarranted suffering.

The tragic flaw of the failed rhetoric that surrounds exercise physiology illustrates an absurd truth.  Exercise physiology is too important to be taken as something it isn’t.  Add to that anyone who tries to assume a leadership role is often viewed either as acting out of a neurotic need or has a mistaken illusion for reality.  But, the truth is what it is.  It should come as no concern to anyone that my concern is if exercise physiologists are willing to define exercise physiology as mentioned above, why is that?  It is such an old concept that by now I would have thought that most exercise physiologists get it.  They should be able to move beyond what is obvious simplicity if not quiet desperation to stay under the radar.  By no means am I angry or resentful of those who disagree.  I can contest to the fact that I have a lot to learn about most things.

Change and growth are the silent mandates of every evolving profession.  Moreover, as exercise physiologists grow in their sense of professionalism, they move away from the limitations of earlier thinking.  This is why there really is no reason for a fixed system of thinking.  In time, what do I think will change?  Please appreciate that nothing is changeless as our thoughts and understanding of exercise physiology will change with time.  That is part of the reason I have spent so much time with an ongoing dialogue between myself and a flow of articles and books of all kinds and dates to argue for change.

For a long, long time I tried to figure out what was expected of me as an exercise physiologists.  I have always known that I am more than just a research, however interesting and rewarding.  The logic of being a fitness instructor or an exercise specialist evaded me.  In the early 1980s when I was the Graduate Coordinator of the School of HPER at the University of Southern Mississippi, after adding and deleting courses in the undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate programs of study, the Dean paid a consultant to visit the School.  The purpose was to get support for changing the title of the doctorate degree, Human Performance, to Exercise Physiology.  The consultant, a PhD “physiologist,” felt that the doctorate program should not be changed to Exercise Physiology.  If experience is a teacher, after nearly 40 years of college teaching, I can say in all honesty that the name change should have taken place during my early days at USM and it should be obvious today.

In a very concrete sense, the self-ascriptions explained to ourselves and others who we are depend on our understanding and vision of exercise physiology.  A fundamental paradox is our sense that we are unique, autonomous professionals while at the same time from a historical perspective we are members of a community of physical educators.  While many of us find joy in the connection with sports medicine and athletics, others feel isolated or divorced from their shared vision and personal sense of reality with healthcare.  In this sense, exercise physiologists must learn to be aware of what is going on around them and allow the obvious to come through.  They can do it, but it does require some work and commitment.  The person who works at it is, ironically, already living it.  Most important of all is the fact that each person must begin where the person is with what the person has.
 

When failure isn’t an option, nothing serves the exercise physiologist better than the ASEP strategic plan for professionalism in exercise physiology.

Without realizing it, it took many years for me to understand that my intuition was right own track.  I am a healthcare professional who can and often does engage in research.  I knew exercise was always a gift and not just an exercise performance to measure VO₂ max.  Frankly, I hate talking about athletics, big muscles, and breaking records.  I know these things are important to others and I respect that.  But, for me personally, it is too much like high school kids bragging about who has the bigger biceps.  And, I believe as long as we talk just about sports training, we will be disinherited from our rightful place in healthcare.  Also, in failing to respond to others that we are credible professionals, we may lose our direct involvement and power to prescribe exercise as medicine.  You may not understand it now, but to be disinherited by other healthcare professionals who are employed to do what we are educated to do is a bad thing for our students and the profession. 

The depth of my interests in exercise physiology is my imagination that gives rise to the power of knowledge that underpins exercise as medicine.  Imagination is both the freedom and the key to catching a glimpse of the future.  Otherwise, what is an exercise physiologist to do when he/she must decide between the loneliness of one’s thinking and the lack of opportunity driven by groupthink and conformity?  There are times when the only options which seem right are for a person to stay the course and deal with the ambiguity of preserving one’s integrity by standing alone. 

Where is your imagination?  There are many sides to the reality of a title.  Why not choose the one that is best for our students?  Why not choose the option of healthcare and sports training over just the physiology of how the body responds to exercise?  After all, exercise physiologists aren’t physiologists unless of course they have a degree in physiology.   This isn’t an imperfect or incomplete thought.  Rather, it is plain and clear that the title, exercise physiology, is a mix of two words:  “exercise” and “physiology.”  If the reader will just allow the mind to wonder from its target-driven path of so-called reasoned intelligence, there is the very real likelihood of adding strength to one’s thinking.  Who knows what is possible when a person chooses to think outside the influence of sports medicine.  Often, from within the frame of a formless idea, one finds shape, substances and, maybe, even hope to another idea that didn’t exist or was not believed earlier. 

Imagine the thousands of exercise physiologists since the 1950s who did not once asked, “Why isn’t exercise physiology a healthcare profession?”  How does that happen?  My immediate response is simply this: Where is the magic in one’s imagination?  Or, where is the endless series of questions, like that of a child sitting at the breakfast table with question after question to his mother.  Have you thought about the connection between the questions and the words?   As the child lays his thoughts bear before his mother, she knows the different sounds equal the same result – attention.  Children love attention, and so it is with adults.  It is hardly possible for adults not to value attention.  It is the same with the principle of closure.  Adults engage and strive to fill in the gaps when the message is strategically structured. 

“Yard by yard, life is hard; but inch by inch, it’s a cinch.” -- Robert Schuller

When it isn’t, as I believe is a function of decades of disappointing rhetoric that still goes on unanalyzed by the majority of the academic exercise physiologists, the gaps grow larger, often like a disease spreading to kill the victim.  Failing to adapt, exercise physiologist are left aimlessly (i.e., without purpose) talking about the senseless title, “exercise scientists.”  Anyone with a grain of sense would object to a causal relationship suggested by advocates of exercise science.  Think about it.  Although it may be obvious to correlate exercise science to the term exercise scientist, there is no cause to do so.  In simple terms, if a person with an exercise science degree argues that exercise scientist is a logical outcome of the term exercise science, he/she would be committing a post hoc error.  The problem with such reasoning should be evident.  Also, what are the implicit and explicit issues embedded in the message?  Fascinating as it may sound, the reality is that there are no exercise scientists per se in the public sector. 

The underlying value of the connection between exercise and physiology isn’t a contradiction.  If exercise physiologists are well educated in the scientific bases of the importance of exercise along with prescribing exercise as a viable healthcare intervention, then how can we not sanction the connection?  Is it conceivable that exercise physiology should be mutually exclusive from healthcare?  Also, in the same context, there is no reason to exclude athletics or sports training from the definition of exercise physiology.  Obviously, or it should be, the foregoing ideas provide an explanation of why the ASEP leaders adopted the following definition of exercise physiology: “…the identification of physiological mechanisms underlying physical activity, the comprehensive delivery of treatment services concerned with the analysis, improvement, and maintenance of health and fitness, rehabilitation of heart disease and other chronic diseases and/or disabilities, and the professional guidance and counsel of athletes and others interested in athletics, sports training, and human adaptability to acute and chronic exercise.”
 

The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from the old ones. -- John Maynard Keynes

In short, the real question is the trustworthiness and believability of the ASEP leaders.  If they are credible, the definition is credible.  Can they be trusted to tell the truth?  Why not?  What have they done to deface exercise physiology?  Nothing at all while doing everything possible to help colleagues and students to escape from the old ideas.  There isn’t a good, logical, or rational argument to contradict the credibility of the leaders.  As advocates of ethical standards, accreditation, board certification, and professional standards of practice, they have provided sound evidence of their credibility.  In regards, while all change is a struggle, those who are trying their best to help others should be given the benefit of doubt.  I believe it was thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson and John Locke who believed that democracy could best be ensured by maintenance of a free marketplace of ideas.  Hence, while friends and colleagues may disagree with the ASEP leaders, there is no chance of coming to know exactly “what is exercise physiology” without free discussion. 

For now, the justification for the ASEP position stand on “what is exercise physiology” is the fact that with our freedom of speech exist the right of free and open debate in the United States.  The First Amendment to the United States Constitution (Article I) guarantees the right of people, individually or collectively, to engage in discussion of controversial issues: Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Why the First Amendment so important?  The answer is rather straight forward.  The dangers of silence (or being silenced) are many.  This article began with the question, “what is exercise physiology?”  Why?  Because both the question and the answer are at the core of what we are and what we will become as individuals and as a profession.  The claims of the ASEP leaders are both familiar to, and consistent with, the traditions of other healthcare professions.  The questions, perspectives, and ideals set forth in the work of the ASEP organization initiate and enhance the professionalism in exercise physiology.  They also enrich the justification for moving forwards, regardless of not knowing all the truths or even the right paths. 

Unfortunately, many who continue to struggle with the simplicity of the traditional definition of exercise physiology are often pressured to conform.  Others rule their own destiny, but often live outside of the community in which they share.  In the end, what is at issue is not who is correct or incorrect but what is good for the students of exercise physiology.  It is a fact that the traditional definition (i.e., “…acute and chronic adaptations to exercise….”) is loaded with conformity that most doctorate prepared exercise physiologists understand.  However, it would not be wise for the BS students or the MS students of exercise physiology to rely on research as their primary means of finding employment and financial stability in the United States.  Moreover, with all the evidence that is available to anyone with his/her eyes open, the implication of this analysis for the public discussion of what is exercise physiology and who is an exercise physiologist seems clear.  Also, it should be obvious that conformity begets conformity (which is hardly a good thing).  Those who refuse to conform, who have the willingness to express a different opinion, and who are frequently inventive in their discourse are a valuable commodity.  More often than not, they are at the center of the power struggles getting the message out.

We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before probably cannot be done at all. -- Donald M. Nelson

Critics may attack the change agent for his/her beliefs, frame of reference, or hint of simplicity.  But, however popular it may be believed, they do so at the risk of exposing themselves.  Others get the message all too easily, and they know the change agents exist for a reason.  They know that failing to change is the problem.  Why, because everyone knows they are trapped in an ideological argument that is decades old, useless, and huge problematic for students.  They forget that doing the right thing for the right reason is always the ethical path.  That’s why exercise physiologists must take the time to think about the thousands of undergraduates leaving college into a waste land of no jobs in the public sector.  The problem is immense with staggering implications that beg for a credible solution.  The ASEP leaders identified what they thought was the right thing to do and they put it into action.  Others, mostly their colleagues, have refused to focus on a solution or how to remove obstacles. 

Hence, regardless of what others are saying, the ASEP leaders are making a difference.  They aren’t approaching the problem with the same sports medicine formula for failure.  After all, as Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going to wind up someplace else.”  This begs the question, “Why is it that hardly anyone has written positively about the ASEP organization or what it stands for?”  Yet, in just a little over 10 years, they have turned the ASEP vision into a reality by changing those are willing to change.  They understand the importance of overcoming uncertainty with structure.  Now, exercise physiologists have the opportunity to gain control over their fate.
 

The power to will is that which, once admitted to our minds, can change the course of our lives. -- Patrick Mahony

As George Eliot said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”  This is especially true for students, which reminds me that recently I was asked, “Are we doing the best we can to help our students?”  I said, “No, not yet, but we are working on it.”  Then, he said, “Well, I guess half a loaf is better than no bread.” Then, I replied, “Frankly, half a baby is worse than no baby at all.  That’s why the ASEP leaders are doing what they can to convert decisions into actions.”  The problem is that too many academic exercise physiologists are divorced from reality.  It is as though they are on an express train to nowhere.  They continue down that blind path of sports medicine.  Talk about lazy eyes.  No wonder we must direct our attention to strengthening our power to will ourselves to do the right thing.  Without it, we cannot save ourselves from being putty in the hands of others.

The ASEP leaders believe 100% that exercise physiology is a “treatment service profession” concerned with the analysis, improvement, and maintenance of health and fitness.  This may seem obvious to most of us.  The definition reminds us that exercise physiology is also a treatment service for the rehabilitation of heart disease and other chronic diseases and/or disabilities.  Remember, as Danny Ozark, Manager of the Philadelphia Phillies said, “Half of this game is ninety percent mental.”  An exercise physiologist who agrees with and supports the Danny’s thinking is more likely to get the big-picture.  Such a person is more likely to bring exercise physiology into perspective as a healthcare profession.  Now, focus on the whole picture and you will see that the definition speaks to the professional guidance and counsel of athletes and others interested in athletics, sports training, and human adaptability to acute and chronic exercise.

That is the big-picture thinking!  It is this thinking that will take exercise physiologists to the next level in the development.  That’s because embracing only the last part of the definition requires staying committed to the exhausting delimitations of traditional thinking.  Also, it insulates the majority of the college graduates from important career opportunities in healthcare.  This approach cannot be the 21st century reality we want for our students.  Instead, the college service performed by academic exercise physiologists should be to give their students a different way.  That way cannot be a one-time thing, but rather a sustainable future.  But, here again, how many times must it said:  “Agreeing on a definition of exercise physiology requires a journey together.” 

People who change the world have declared independence from other people’s expectations. -- Myles Munroe

That is exactly what the ASEP exercise physiologists have done.  They believe that college teachers should earn a living by first satisfying the intelligence of their students and, second, by helping them to find a credible and financially sound career in the public sector.  In fact, I am sure that it has disheartened many men and women, parents and teachers, to see young college graduates after four or more years of a college education to find out that they are ill-prepared find a career.  Perhaps, this is why some college teachers understand that it is time to get beyond the arrogance, shallowness, and abuses of the academic setting.  So, to conclude my remarks, should I be uncomfortable with anything I have written?  No.  Let me confess something to you.  I believe that I am not a mistake, and that my life is significant.  I believe I was born with a sense of purpose.  That purpose is to redirect exercise physiology from a discipline to a profession in order to help exercise physiologists realize their personal dreams.  If you were to think about it, “Do you know why you exist?”