Alternatives Database

Exercise Physiology

An interactive, menu driven program, suitable for students of biology at high school and undergraduate level. This program simulates some of the important physiological measurements which can be made to assess cardio-respiratory performance or "fitness" in the laboratory. The program presents results, in a form comparable to a chart recorder (in high resolution graphics), from healthy individuals performing a fixed schedule of graded exercise on a bicycle ergometer, and includes:-

Heart Rate,

Minute (Pulmonary) Ventilation,

Oxygen Consumption,

Blood Lactate Concentration.

Measurements can be taken from the trace by pausing it and using the cross-hair cursor facility provided. The program simulates the response of a subject working continuously under a work load which is increased by increments of 20 watts each minute until the subject is exhausted. The screen display also shows a digital clock and work load meter. Heart rate is monitored continuously and respiratory performance is assessed by breath-by-breath analysis of expiratory air samples. Blood samples may be taken during the exercise regime and the [lactate] determined using a simulated spectrophotometer.

The program allows subject parameters (age, weight, height, sex, trained or untrained) to be determined by the user and may thus be used to compare, for example, male with female performance, or the effects of training or age.

Language Versions: English

Recommended System Requirements:

Windows:

• Microsoft Windows XP (32 bit), Windows Server 2003 (32-bit), Windows Server 2008 (32 bit), Windows Vista (32 bit), Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit), Windows 8
• 2.33GHz or faster x86-compatible processor, or Intel Atom 1.6GHz or faster processor for netbooks
• 128MB of RAM (1GB of RAM recommended for netbooks); 128MB of graphics memory
• Internet Explorer 7.0 or later, Mozilla Firefox 4.0 or later, Google Chrome, Safari 5.0 or later, or Opera 11

Mac OS:

• Mac OS X v10.6, v10.7, or v10.8
• Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor
• 256MB of RAM; 128MB of graphics memory
• Safari 5.0 or later, Mozilla Firefox 4.0 or later, Google Chrome, or Opera 11
• Target Audience: Undergraduate medical, biological sciences and Healthcare sciences.

Price: £250 (multiuser, educational license)