This volume summarizes the proceedings of the Reisensburg workshop which took place at Reisensburg Castle in November 1997." The castle is built on the site of an - cient Roman compound and situated in the south of Germany at the Danube river. Sci- tists from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States participated in the workshop. Like the 1996 workshop, the proceedings of which will be published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Ex- cise in 1998, the 1997 workshop also focused on the topic of overtraining in its widest sense to deepen our knowledge in this particularly sensitive field of sports science and sports practice. The authors see the present volume in a context with the proceedings p- sented by Guten (ed. ) "Running Injuries"; Saunders, Philadelphia (1997) and Kxeider, Fry, and O'Toole (eds. ) "Overtraining in Sport"; Human Kinetics, Champaign IL (1997). Overtraining, that is, too much stress combined with too little time for regeneration, can be seen as a crucial and threatening problem within the modern athletic community, of which significance can already be recognized reading daily newspapers: ." . . During the 1996 European championships, a gymnast shook his head almost imperceptibly, closed his eyes briefly and left the arena without looking up. He was fatigue personified. 'Suddenly, I just couldn't do any more. I just wanted to rest'." A look at his schedule showed why.

This volume summarizes the proceedings of the Reisensburg workshop which took place at Reisensburg Castle in November 1997". The castle is built on the site of an - cient Roman compound and situated in the south of Germany at the Danube river. Sci- tists from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States participated in the workshop. Like the 1996 workshop, the proceedings of which will be published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Ex- cise in 1998, the 1997 workshop also focused on the topic of overtraining in its widest sense to deepen our knowledge in this particularly sensitive field of sports science and sports practice. The authors see the present volume in a context with the proceedings p- sented by Guten (ed. ) "Running Injuries"; Saunders, Philadelphia (1997) and Kxeider, Fry, and O'Toole (eds. ) "Overtraining in Sport"; Human Kinetics, Champaign IL (1997). Overtraining, that is, too much stress combined with too little time for regeneration, can be seen as a crucial and threatening problem within the modern athletic community, of which significance can already be recognized reading daily newspapers: ". . . During the 1996 European championships, a gymnast shook his head almost imperceptibly, closed his eyes briefly and left the arena without looking up. He was fatigue personified. 'Suddenly, I just couldn't do any more. I just wanted to rest'". A look at his schedule showed why.

"Physiological Assessment of Human Fitness, Second Edition," contains detailed descriptions of a range of accepted fitness assessment methods. This resource focuses on the general population, not just elite athletes.

Following in the footsteps of the highly successful first edition, "Physiological Assessment of Human Fitness, Second Edition," summarizes the current scientific methods for assessment in areas such as:

-aerobic and anaerobic power;

-capacity for sustained exercise using blood lactate, respiratory markers, and heart rate markers;

-pulmonary gas exchange;

-mechanical power and strength;

-body composition;

-joint range of motion; and

-field testing of athletes.The authors, highly respected exercise physiologists, have made significant changes in each chapter to provide up-to-date coverage of the topics and to offer complete descriptions of the techniques, procedures, and norms for accurate and effective fitness testing. In addition, the authors have included new chapters on the use of near-infrared spectrophotometry and the potential for heart rate variability in assessment. As a result, readers learn how to measure and interpret physiological changes resulting from different types of training programs for sport and for health improvement.

"Physiological Assessment of Human Fitness, Second Edition," provides practical, detailed descriptions of a range of accepted laboratory and field methods for assessing human fitness. It is an invaluable reference for professionals and students involved in human fitness assessment, including exercise physiology practitioners, graduate students in exercise physiology, exercise science researchers, sports medicine practitioners, and human fitness evaluators.