kinesiology or Biomechanics?
Among movement scientists and clinicians, there is often disagreement over the use of the terms kinesiology and biomnechanics. The word kinesiology is a combination of the Greek kinein meaning ((to move” and logos meaning “discourse.” Kinesiologists—those who discourse on movement—combine anatomy (the science of body stmcture) with physiology (the science of body function) to produce kinesiology, the science of movement of the body.
Kinesiology has long been used an umbrella term to describe any form of anatomic, physiologic, psychological, or mechanical human movement evaluation. Therefore, kinesiology has been used by several disciplines to describe many different content areas. A class in kinesiology may consist primarily of functional anatomy at one university and strictly biomechanics at another. Typically, a kinesiology course has been part of college curricula in physical education, exercise science, athletic training, and physical therapy programs. These courses usually focus on the musculoskeletal system, movement efficiency from an anatomic standpoint, and joint and muscular actions during simple and complex movements. A successful student in a kinesiology course could identify discrete phases in an activity, describe the segmental movements occurring in each phase, and then identify the major muscular contributors to each joint movement. Thus a kinesiologic analysis of the movement of a vertical jump would be as follows: The movements would be hip extension via the gluteus maximus and hamstrings, knee extension via the quadriceps femoris, and plantarflexion via the gastrocnemius-soleus complex. Such an analysis is considered qualitative because it involves the observation of movement and identification of the muscular contributions to that movement.
In the last 30 to 40 years, biomechanics has been developed as an area of study within undergraduate and graduate curricula throughout the world. The contents of biomechanics include a marriage of the areas of applied physics or mechanics and biology. Mechanics, the study of the effect of forces on an object and the resulting motions, is used by engineers to design and build structures or machines because it provides the tools for analyzing the strength of structures and methods for predicting and measuring the movement of a machine. Since it is natural to apply mechanics to the movements and structures of living organisms, the term biomechanics was created.
A biomechanical analysis evaluates the motion of a living organim and also may examine the forces responsible for the observed motion. Biomechanical analyses can be qualitative or quantitative, whereas a kinesiologic analysis would be strictly qualitative. Thus a biomechanical analysis of the vertical jump might include a qualitative description of the movement (similar to the kinesiologic analysis) in addition to the following: measurement of the forces between the person’s feet and the floor: quantification of the joint angles at the hip, knee, and ankle; calculation of the joint forces acting at each joint; and the amount of muscle activity in specific muscles.
Each of the posts in this series includes biomechanical analyses of a specific activity, since each describes certain movement characteristics and muscle actIvity both quantitatively and qualitatively, as available in the literature. More research is necessary before the biomechanics of even sport are fully understood. Clinicians today typically have several measurement tools—isokinetic/isovelocity dynamometers, electromyography (EMG) units, goniometers, and video systems—that enable them to conduct biomechanical analyses daily within the rehabilitation environment. A thorough understanding of the biomechanics of injury mechanisms, aspects of individual sports, and treatment interventions is crucial to providing the standard of care expected in today’s sports medicine environment.
