ABSTRACT
Exercise science as an academic discipline in colleges and universities has existed only since the mid-to-late 1960s. It has been said that physiology, or the study of the processes and functions of the human body, is the meeting place of the sciences. Modern study of anatomy had its beginning in the 1500s as the gross study of organ structure and function. Kinesiology can be defined most simply as the study of human motion; indeed, some universities use this term for the name of a department that includes exercise science and physical education (among others) programs. The influence of lifestyle on the health and illnesses of a lifetime has been suggested in the past, but hard epidemiological evidence has only been available since the 1970s. Many academic programs in exercise science emerged in response to public concerns about our society's lack of physical fitness and the aerobic fitness movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
