Kinesiology For Dummies

Steve Glass, Brian Hatzel, Rick Albrecht

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118549254
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Anatomy

Move at your own pace with this kinesiology course guide

A required course for majors pursuing sports medicine, exercise science, nursing, or sports therapy degrees, kinesiology is central to a variety of fields. Kinesiology For Dummies tracks an introductory course in the science and imparts the basics of human body movement. With this resource, you will learn how physical activity can alleviate chronic illnesses and disabilities, what factors contribute to musculoskeletal injury, and how to reverse those influences. Complete with a 16-page color insert of medical instructions, this book covers the basics of exercise physiology, exercise and health psychology, introductory biomechanics, motor control, history and philosophy of sport and exercise, and mind-body connections.

• Written by experts in exercise science
• Addresses a timely subject as exercise science careers and majors are increasingly popular
• Runs parallel to a kinesiology course with accessible, concise language

Interested learners, kinesiology students, and health or sports therapy professionals will benefit from this refresher course in the basics.

Part I

Getting Started with Kinesiology

For Dummies can help you get started with lots of subjects. Visit www.dummies.com to learn more and do more with For Dummies.

In this part…

• Discover the basics of kinesiology, like how to take a systems approach to the control of the body and the connection between mind and body related to movement and physical fitness
• Get up to speed on the disciplines you'll be exposed to as a student of kinesiology
• Trace the history of kinesiology, from its ancient beginnings to the advanced sport and exercise programs of today

Chapter 1

Introducing Kinesiology: The Science of Movement

In This Chapter

Identifying the fields within kinesiology

Grasping the concept of a systems approach to the control of the body

Studying the many aspects of movement

Evaluating whether this career is a good fit for you

The human body was made to move. Your health depends on it, your survival is supported through it, and your ability to engage and interact with the world requires it. Kinesiology is the science behind movement, and it examines movement in a variety of areas, ranging from health and physiology to biomechanics and sport performance.

Because the human body is complex, the study of movement is complex as well. In this chapter, we offer a quick overview of the science, the field, and the options available to you as a student — official or not — of kinesiology.

Getting Familiar with Key Areas of Study

Kinein is a Greek word meaning “to move,” and the study of movement is the foundation of the wide-ranging field of kinesiology. Kinesiology covers a broad array of disciplines that examine the human body at rest, during motion, and as it adapts and changes as a result of motion.

Forming the foundation for kinesiology

Before you can understand how the body moves and adapts to movement, you must understand the human body at rest. These basics — knowing important biological processes, explaining the function of the body's structural components and its systems, knowing the chemical reactions that occur in the body, being familiar with principles governing matter in motion, and so on — give you a working knowledge of the human body and how it works.

Here's a quick rundown of the subjects you need to know before you get into kinesiology, arranged in a way to give you a glimpse of how the body works:

• Biology: Learning about living organisms and what make them tick sets you on the right path. Biology helps you understand the structure and function of cells, their growth and development, and how they come together to form complex life forms.
• Anatomy: When you understand how organisms function at the level of the cell, you can then begin to understand how humans (and animals) are constructed. Understanding anatomy gives you the blueprint of a species. Anatomical study ranges from the structure of the very small (cells and tissues) to the very large (the hip-bone-connected-to-the-thigh-bone kind of info).
  

  If you want to learn how to train someone to increase muscle growth or bone strength, you really need to know how the muscles and bones are constructed!
• Physiology: With a firm understanding of cellular processes (biology) and how the body is put together (anatomy), you can start to examine how cells, tissues, and organs work together in a living body. Physiology examines the functions of the living tissues of the body. Whereas anatomy teaches you how the heart is constructed, physiology shows you how it works in relation to the lungs and the muscles and reveals its purpose throughout the body. By studying human physiology, you begin to see that the different structures of the body are designed for specific functions that, altogether, keep the entire body functioning.
• Chemistry: Humans are made of matter and require energy to live. Because the body is constructed of atoms, and energy is exchanged through the interaction of various atoms, molecules, and enzymes, you need a basic understanding of chemistry. This knowledge helps you understand what goes on in the body during exercise. After you know the basics of chemistry, you can then focus more closely on the chemistry of the human body.
• Biochemistry: Biochemistry gives you more in-depth understanding about how the body makes energy from the food eaten and how it uses that energy to keep the cells alive.
• Physics: Bodies are always in motion, even when they seem to be sitting still. Therefore, understanding matter in motion — the realm of physics — is essential to the study of kinesiology. Physics helps you understand the relationship between energy and force, levers (like joints!), center of gravity, and acceleration.
• Psychology: You can't fully understand movement unless you also understand the brain! Not only do you need to know the anatomy and basic physiology of the functioning areas of the brain, but you also must have an understanding about how the brain can adapt, learn, and develop new ways of moving the body. This area also delves into how emotions influence the body and behaviors.

Getting serious: Embarking into the fields specific to kinesiology

Sometimes the hardest part of starting a career in kinesiology is deciding which field to focus on! Your interest may gravitate toward the microscopic: the actions of cells and organ systems and how they function during movement. Maybe you'd prefer to focus on the way the body performs movements and generates forces, or how the body heals through physical training. There is a field for all interests within the study of kinesiology. Take a look at some of the primary fields listed here.

Exercise physiology

Exercise physiology is all about the body in motion. Understanding how the systems of the body (like muscular and cardiovascular) behave during exercise and how they adapt as a result of exercise training is a major part of exercise physiology. For detailed information on exercise physiology, head to the chapters in Part II.

Exercise is used as a tool to change the body as well as to better understand how the body functions. For this reason, exercise physiology is a key component of the many careers and fields that use exercise as a way to improve the body. You can discover a number of these fields in Chapter 18.

Biomechanics

Movement involves forces, levers, balance, and accelerations. Starting with a foundation of mathematics and physics, biomechanists study the mechanics of movement. Movements can be as simple as lifting a weight or as complex as walking (gait) or doing a high jump. Biomechanics uses technologies that can measure forces (force platforms) and the activation of muscles (electromyography), and it often uses video to analyze all the aspects of body movement. Part III delves deeply into the biomechanics of movement.

Rehabilitation therapy

Injuries can happen for a variety of reasons: perhaps from a movement that isn't performed correctly (you lift something wrong, for example), an accident (you fall on an arm), or some underlying health issue (a problem exists with your heart or lungs, for example).

Understanding how the body heals and the interaction between exercise and the healing process is an area of study that spans a number of career fields. These fields often combine medical knowledge with exercise physiology, biomechanics, and even sport psychology. Studies for this field may focus on cardiac rehabilitation, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, occupational therapy, and therapeutic recreation. Parts II and III help contribute knowledge to rehabilitation of the body.

Sport and exercise psychology

After the body has been trained for an activity, the mind becomes the most important aspect of performance. Mood, behavior, and confidence all influence performance, for better or for worse. This area of study seeks to answer questions like, “How do athletes control the stress of a competition and still do their best?” and “How can an athlete be ‘in the zone’ one day and then perform terribly the next?”

Sport and exercise psychology studies human behavior and the mind and applies that knowledge to determine how best to train athletes to get the most out of their performance. In Chapter 13, we take a close look at the impact of motivation (or lack thereof) on performance and offer suggestions on how to get and stay committed to a physically active lifestyle.

Strength and conditioning

Athletes’ bodies can perform at their best only if they have been properly conditioned for the activity. Because movement requires conditioning the muscular and cardiovascular systems, as well as training the body to hold off fatigue, studying strength and conditioning gives you a deep understanding of how exercise changes the body. You also learn how to apply training principles that are specifically designed to improve performance in a sport. Parts II and III cover aspects of conditioning related not only to the muscles (like Chapter 10) but to the other systems of the body that are essential for peak performance.

Sports and athletics

With expertise in the skills required by a particular sport and with full understanding of all aspects of human movement, coaches serve as teachers and mentors to developing athletes. Because they perform a number of roles for the athlete, coaches need to understand the principles of how exercise can be used for conditioning, and they must know how to effectively apply the concepts of motivation and behavior change. Effective coaches also study the foundations of sport within the culture and discover strategies for motivating young athletes to perform at their best within a competitive and stressful environment.

Fitness and wellness

Cardiovascular disease and cancer are the leading killers of men and women in America. Research has shown a strong link between these conditions and physical inactivity and poor nutrition. Fitness and wellness professionals use exercise and physical movement as part of a comprehensive approach to reduce the incidence of cancer and heart disease. Exercise, body fat reduction, and dietary improvements go a long way toward putting people on a path to health. Chapter 17 delves into the link between physical inactivity and health problems related to obesity.

Understanding the Many Systems That Make Up the Human Body

Single-cell organisms have it so easy! Everything they need is contained in one cell. All their biological processes (eating, generating energy, moving, “thinking...