It is surprising how few attempts have been made to describe or to reach a consensus on current knowledge on physical activity, exercise and health. The 32 published Symposia of the Society for the Study of Human Biology, for example, do not include a title on this topic. This is unexpected for a Society now nearly 35 years old and containing many members interested in this area. Recent symposia have examined Energy and Effort (Harrison, 1982) and Capacity for Work in the Tropics (Collins & Roberts, 1988), and disease and abnormality have been a recurring interest in the Society's symposia but physical activity and health has been left to others.

It might be thought that there was no need for another symposium on the topic. The case for exercise has been made (Fentem and Bassey, 1978) and updated (Fentem, Bassey & Turnbull, 1988) and the leading experts met in Toronto in 1988 to produce a 700-page consensus of current knowledge on exercise, fitness and health (Bouchard et al., 1990). In the United Kingdom, sport, health, psychology and exercise were examined with a mental health emphasis at a three-day symposium in 1988 emanating from the Fitness and Health Advisory Group of the Sports Council and the Health Education Authority (Proceedings of Symposium on Sport, Health, Psychology and Exercise) (n.d.). What these latter sources disclose is that there is still much to be understood.