Skeletal Muscle: Form and Function

This logically-organized reference for exercise physiologists, physical therapists, athletic trainers, sports medics, and strength and conditioning specialists refers to classic texts in muscle physiology and to recent discoveries in the field. It also includes research methodology and results. The author first examines the wide-ranging information known about skeletal muscle, and then provides practical examples of how physiological concepts are related to clinical disorders resulting from muscle or nerve fibre defects. He explains how muscle structure translates into function; how muscles develop in the embryo and obtain their nerve supply; the cellular processes which take place when muscles work, and how certain clinical disorders result from specific defects in muscle and nerve.

Brian R. MacIntosh, PhD, is associate dean of the graduate program and professor for the faculty of kinesiology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. MacIntosh is on the cutting edge of research in skeletal muscle and has published more than 50 papers and numerous book chapters in muscle and exercise physiology. He has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas for 25 years and is a member of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, the Canadian Physiological Society, the American Physiological Society, the American College of Sports Medicine, the Biophysical Society, and the Human Powered Vehicles Association. He is also an associate editor for the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology and a former board member for the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology.

Phillip Gardiner, PhD, is director of the Health, Leisure & Human Performance Research Institute at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is also an adjunct professor of physiology, a member of the Spinal Cord Research Center in the faculty of medicine at the University of Manitoba, and a Canada Research Chair, a position given to internationally renowned researchers. Gardiner is past president of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and previous coeditor in chief of the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology. He has published extensively in the area of neuromuscular adaptations and authored the book Neuromuscular Aspects of Physical Activity.

Alan J. McComas, MB, is emeritus professor of medicine (in neurology) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. McComas has more than 40 years of research experience in nerve and muscle. Among his accomplishments in research are devising a method for estimating the number of human motor units in human muscle, showing the importance of the electrogenic sodium pump in delaying fatigue, and carrying out early microelectrode studies of human muscle fibers. He has held named lectureships and is a member of the Society for Neuroscience.