Textbook of Work Physiology, Fourth Edition

Fourth Edition : Per-Olof Åstrand and Kaare Rodahl with Hans Dahl and Sigmund Stromme. Human Kinetics, 2003. 650 pages hardback, £59.50. ISBN 0-7360-0140-9

The last edition of this classic work was published in 1986. This new edition extends and updates Åstrand and Rodahl's pioneer research into such phenomena as muscle fatigue, actually carried out in the workplace (e.g. car factories) rather than the laboratory. Keeping up with the dynamic field of work physiology is a bit like trying to produce a dictionary that isn't out of date six months before it's published.

Athletic effort, whether competitive or not, is the ultimate in work, a kind of testing ground to the limit for the human muscle, the basic instrument of our mobility. Consequently Åstrand and Rodahl is the basic textbook for sports scientists. Looking at work (something many of us prefer to do) in this kind of detail, and illustrating it with hundreds of tables, charts and graphs, naturally produces a very large A4 format book, with double-column text – about 24 issues of Cycle Coaching – in a durable hardback, with one of those wipe-clean finishes which is impervious to the stains left by coffee, pizza and midnight oil.

Since it's a primer for scientists, a knowledge of ‘elementary' physics, chemistry, anatomy and physiology is assumed, though some basic physiology and biochemistry are included. And after that the world's your lobster: cells, muscles, motor function, body fluids, respiration, and the skeletal system; then physical performance and its evaluation, physical training, nutrition, temperature regulation, health, and the applications of sport and work physiology.

Even sports science undergraduates (or indeed graduates) need a break sometimes, and they can have a lot of fun just dipping into Å and R and coming up with their own personal collections in the ‘not-many-people-know-that' category: heart weight in pretty well all mammals from mouse to elephant is proportionally the same, .006. But the heart of a 25-gram mouse beats at around 700 per minute, that of the elephant 25 per minute. Low-frequency fatigue has been shown to occur in human forearm muscles after using a computer mouse – although quite a lot of people know that now. Driving a dog-team across the Greenland icecap is a lot like riding a stage of the Tour de France, or working in a Spitzbergen coal mine, and here are the graphs to prove it.

There are conversion tables, symbols, a glossary, 64 pages of references, and a good index. Essential book for all libraries and many students.

Ramin Minovi