What Is Sports and Exercise Physiology?

The engine room of human performance.

Every great performance starts beneath the surface—before tactics, before mindset, before movement itself. That’s where sports and exercise physiology lives.

What Is Sports & Exercise Physiology?

It’s the science of how the human body responds and adapts to physical activity. It’s what governs your heart rate during a sprint, your muscle fatigue in a match, and your recovery after a hard training block. It's also what separates random training from smart, evidence-based coaching.

Let’s break it down.

At its core, sports and exercise physiology answers questions like:

• How much oxygen can your body use during intense effort?

• What energy systems fuel your movement—and when?

• How does the body adapt to repeated training stimuli?

• What are the limits of human performance—and how can we safely push them?

These aren’t just academic questions. They influence real-life decisions, like:

• How hard should an athlete train today?

• What’s the best way to recover between games?

• Why is this athlete constantly injured?

• How do we individualise training based on fitness testing?

The Key Systems of the Human Body in Physiology:

• Cardiovascular System: Delivers oxygen and removes waste during exercise.

• Muscular System: Generates force and power, adapting based on load and intensity.

• Respiratory System: Supplies oxygen, regulates acid-base balance.

• Endocrine System: Manages hormones involved in stress, recovery, and adaptation.

• Nervous System: Coordinates movement, speed, and reaction time.

Each of these systems interacts during sport. Understanding these interactions is what allows strength coaches, physiologists, and PE teachers to make informed training decisions—not guesses.

Why It Matters in Malta (and Anywhere Else)

In small sporting nations like Malta, we can’t afford to waste talent—or time. Sports and exercise physiology helps us:

• Train smarter, not just harder.

• Reduce injury through better load management.

• Create athlete development systems based on science, not guesswork.

And yet, it’s often misunderstood or undervalued. Many still see “fitness” as running laps. Physiology says: let’s train the systems!

Final Thought

Sports and exercise physiology is the foundation of everything from elite training plans to PE lessons. It’s not about lab coats and VO2 max machines—it’s about understanding the body well enough to help it thrive.

If you want better athletes, start by understanding the science of the body. That’s sports and exercise physiology.

Reference:

Kenney, W. L., Wilmore, J. H., & Costill, D. L. (2019). Physiology of Sport and Exercise. Human Kinetics.