Exercise Physiology

At the Exercise Physiology Lab at Children’s Hospital Boston, we use exercise tests—such as running on a treadmill—to predict how your or your child’s cardiopulmonary system responds to exercise or other physical activities. We perform more than 1,900 exercise tests each year.

The Exercise Physiology Laboratory at Children's Hospital performs more than 1,900 exercise tests each year. The most sophisticated, state-of-the-art technology is used to obtain the most reliable and clinically useful data. Formal exercise testing can provide valuable and objective insights into a patient's cardiopulmonary condition and capacity.

Most clinical tests done by pediatric cardiologists (other than exercise tests), assess the cardiopulmonary system when a patient is at rest (lying still). Although valuable, these tests do not necessarily predict how a patient's cardiopulmonary system will respond to the demands of exercise, or measure the patient's true capacity to perform physical activities. The testing done in Children's Exercise Physiology Laboratory provides this assessment.