Fundamentals of Biomechanics

This second edition of Fundamentals of
Biomechanics was developed primarily to
update a well-received text. The uniqueness
of integrating biological and mechanical
bases in analyzing and improving human
movement has been expanded with
more examples, figures, and lab activities.
Citations to the latest research and web
links help students access primary sources.
Students and instructors will appreciate the
CD with lab activities, answers to review
questions, sample questions, and graphics
files of the illustrations.
This book is written for students taking
the introductory biomechanics course in
Kinesiology/HPERD. The book is designed
for majors preparing for all kinds of human
movement professions and therefore uses a
wide variety of movement examples to illustrate
the application of biomechanics.
While this approach to the application of
biomechanics is critical, it is also important
that students be introduced to the scientific
support or lack of support for these qualitative
judgments. Throughout the text extensive
citations are provided to support the
principles developed and give students references
for further study. Algebraic level
mathematics is used to teach mechanical
concepts. The focus of the mathematical examples
is to understand the mechanical
variables and to highlight the relationship
between various biomechanical variables,
rather than to solve quantitative biomechanical
word problems. It is obvious from
research in physics instruction that solving
quantitative word problems does not increase
the conceptual understanding of important
mechanical laws (Elby, 2001;
ix
Preface
Lawson & McDermott, 1987; Kim & Pak,
2002).
So why another textbook on the biomechanics
of human motion? There are plenty
of books that are really anatomy books
with superficial mechanics, that teach mechanics
with sport examples, or are sport
books that use some mechanics to illustrate
technique points. Unfortunately, there are
not many books that truly integrate the biological
and mechanical foundations of human
movement and show students how to
apply and integrate biomechanical knowledge
in improving human movement. This
book was written to address these limitations
in previous biomechanics texts. The
text presents a clear conceptual understanding
of biomechanics and builds nine
principles for the application of biomechanics.
These nine principles form the applied
biomechanics tools kinesiology professionals
need. The application of these biomechanical
principles is illustrated in qualitative
analysis of a variety of human movements
in several contexts for the kinesiology
professional: physical education, coaching,
strength and conditioning, and sports
medicine. This qualitative analysis approach
meets the NASPE Guidelines and
Standards (Kinesiology Academy, 1992) for
an introductory biomechanics course, and
clearly shows students how biomechanical
knowledge must be applied when kinesiology
professionals improve human movement.
The text is subdivided into four parts:
Introduction, Biological/Structural Bases,
Mechanical Bases, and Applications of
Biomechanics in Qualitative Analysis. Each