Poortmans, J. (ed.); Karger, Basel, Switzerland, 2004, 306 pp., ISBN 3‐8055‐7607‐2, $169.75.Students have great enthusiasm for understanding the biochemistry and physiology of exercise and can cope with a great deal of arcane detail when the material seems to be relevant to them. This book would therefore be of interest, although it is perhaps more at the research than the undergraduate level, and it is certainly not priced for the undergraduate pocket. It is part of a series: Medicine and Sport Science, with chapters by different authors, and is No. 46 in this series.Any biochemist will surely be refreshed and challenged to read the first chapter entitled “Enzymes, Energy and Endurance” by Eric Newsholme (famously described as “Biochemist and athlete” in an Open University film of many years ago).
This first chapter covers a great range and points out that most in vitro biochemistry with enzymes is done with very dilute enzyme solutions, the findings from which may have rather little to do with the in vivo situation (and this applies to control theories too). Newsholm goes into “equilibrium” and “nonequilibrium” reactions, pointing out that if we were at equilibrium we would be dead. We are not because biochemical systems are open: energy and matter are exchanged with the environment. For those of us who try to teach biochemical reactions and pathways in the light of thermodynamics, this chapter provides an illuminating way in which to do it.
The author also goes into the reactions and substrates of the “right‐hand” and “left‐hand” parts of the Krebs Cycle (I am assuming that this proceeds clockwise as it does in nearly but not completely all printed diagrams!). The idea is introduced of novel fuels for exercise, which bypass any limitation by oxaloacetate concentration, and which involve feeding in glutamine and proline. These fuels could be important for some human muscles under some conditions and raises the question of whether some endurance athletes have some energy characteristics similar to those of some insects!The second chapter deals with skeletal muscle fibers and the distribution of the fiber types in athletes (as well as in aging). (It is interesting to compare the reference list for this chapter (227 cited) with that for Newsholme's chapter (12).) This theme is continued in Chapter 3, which considers molecular aspects of muscular contraction and then goes on to look at energetics and power output. This theme is picked up in the fourth chapter, which will be very valuable to biochemists teaching metabolism: it deals with high‐energy phosphates and muscle energetics. The whole body ATP turnover in the 100‐m race is calculated as just over 3 mol/min compared with about 1 mol/min in the marathon.The following four chapters are devoted to metabolism of carbohydrate, lactate, lipids, and protein during exercise. The pathways by which these compounds are broken down to fuel physical activity are described, as well as the pros and cons of using the various substrates to fuel exercise.
Regulation of these processes is also described, as well as metabolism is affected by training. On these subjects, there is some overlap and repetition between the chapters.Readers of the book, who themselves are keen exercisers, will find the section on glycogen depletion informative. It will tell them how long glycogen stores last during exercises of varying intensity and the extent to which carbohydrate loading is important to improve performance. There is a section on utilization of carbohydrates taken prior to or during exercise, as well as the latest findings on how to restore carbohydrate levels after exercise. This information is much debated both in scientific and lay magazines devoted to fitness, and the reader will find it useful to understand what the latest scientific position is on these subjects.The chapter on protein metabolism includes information on protein requirements for athletes and attempts to lay out the facts of this confusing area, especially as many physical trainers will advocate the use of high‐protein diets to fuel muscle growth during periods of intense bodybuilding. Thus, the chapter includes information on a practical level of protein intake for exercisers, with recommendations for vegetarians on how to get a full complement of amino acids, as well as a brief description of the dangers associated with a high‐protein diet. The influence of genetics on exercise ability is largely ignored in the book, although there is a brief mention and reference to the HERITAGE Family study that is trying to identify key genes encoding enzymes of pathways related to substrate storage and utilization.The final chapter is given entirely to the mechanisms of muscle fatigue, an intriguing subject about which little is known.
Much research is currently focused in this area because a better understanding will enable us to exercise harder and for longer thus improving athletic abilities. Although some aspects of muscle fatigue are covered earlier throughout different chapters of the book, it is nevertheless useful to have a discussion of the considerable progress that has been made in this field. This chapter reviews muscle fatigue resulting from two general types of activity: short duration, high intensity, and endurance training. Important current theories and supportive experimental results are presented, and review references are given for the reader to investigate the topic more fully.
It would also have been useful if the author had included some suggestions on how to improve or mitigate muscle fatigue. This would attract students who are both interested to know the etiology of muscle fatigue, amply outlined in this chapter, but who also want to improve their own performance by utilizing the latest findings in this large field of research.Overall, the book is informative, with nearly all chapters having a long list of references; many have over 200 citations. This is an area where much research is going on with many findings being hotly debated, partly because good experiments are hard to do.
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Summarizing the body of work in this field can be a daunting task, especially into a book of 306 pages. The text is aimed at students of biochemistry who are studying or are interested in learning more about the biochemistry of exercise physiology, but it would be a difficult read for many of the physical trainers or others interested in sports with little or no scientific background.
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Such individuals have to rely on what can be misleading or old information in the magazines published by the popular press.