Sports medicine is the study of the health implications of human physical activity.
It encompasses the effects of exercise on the individual and phenomena that affect performance. Exercise implies purposeful movement which results in bodily adaptations that can have beneficial or adverse effects on health. The analysis of exercise as a physical stressor requires understanding the contributions of individual systems, such as nervous, muscular and skeletal systems, in creating an optimal environment for human development and maintenance of function. Hence, sports medicine focuses on exercise-induced bodily adaptations which contribute to peak performance, facilitate recovery from injury, and control disease processes. Effect of physical loads on growth of cartilaginous and bony skeleton Differential effects of internal and external loads on child, pubescent, mature and aging skeleton Epiphyseal stress and adaptation.