Exercise is not enough to ensure good health. You must also respect your body and know what is good or bad for it.

So are sports beneficial or dangerous? Can exercise harm the spinal column? Can it be bad for your heart? Does exercise increase or lessen stress? How can you avoid damaging your bones? How can you safeguard your blood pressure?

Too much exercise — or poorly executed exercises — can be bad for you. Some knowledge is required and a few precautions must be taken if sports are to have more positive than negative effects.

This book shows you how to boost health and morale by respecting your body.

It will help you discover the best way of practising sports.

This original reflection on sports and exercise offers an objective examination of the benefits and risks involved.

The information and advice included here will enable readers to choose the sport that is best suited to their own health and physical condition.

A physician specialising in sports medicine, Stéphane Cascua works at Hôpital de La Pitié-Salpêtrière, in Paris, and for a major professional football team. He is also a university lecturer.