The challenge is to take a topic that many have found difficult, confusing, and tedious (the biochemistry of exercise) and turn it into an entertaining, memorable, and relevant one. The authors succeed admirably. They have stripped the traditional teaching format away and used a series of athlete profiles (the weightlifter, the middle distance athlete, the games player, etc) as a method of providing a sound foundation in all aspects of the biochemistry of exercise.

Each chapter offers a very accessible format. Firstly, a …