Personal Trainers Certification Online Course - Biomechanics

Informations

• Publié par: seorumer
• Publié le: 12 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Biomechanics

Think about what we’ve learned so far. When Introduction to Biomechanics
we move, our nervous system instructs our
muscles to contract. These contractions cause What is Biomechnics?
bones to move around the axes of joints. For
Biomechanics evaluates the motion of a living this reason, our bodies can be viewed as a se-
ries of levers (bones) which rotate around an organism and the action of forces upon it. In
axis (joints) under the direction of a force (mus- the personal fitness training field, biomechanics
can be looked at as the study of how the body cular contraction). When working with a client,
we have a responsibility to not only guide them moves and what causes movement either inter-
to their goals, but to do so in a safe and effective nally (via muscles) or externally (via external load
manner. It is vital to have some understanding or added weight bearing activities). Biomechan-
of how the human body is meant to move and ics is simply the application of the Laws of Phys-
ics to the human body. more importantly, which movements to avoid
and why. If a trainer does not understand these
fundamental principles, their workouts will be Why are we concerned about
inefficient and potentially dangerous. Our pri-
Biomechanics? mary concern as trainers should always be to
If you were to pick up a sports biomechanics give clients the greatest benefit with the least
textbook, it would most likely say there are two amount of risk.
primary goals for biomechanics: performance
enhancement and injury prevention/re-
Biomechanics - a NEW way of habilitation. Biomechanics enhances perfor-
mance by utilizing mechanical principles to im- looking at exercise
One of the primary goals of this chapter is to prove an individual’s technique, the equipment
they use and to modify specific training protocols empower you with a solid foundation in biome-
that the trainer implements to help an individual chanics. Another is to introduce you to a new
way of looking at exercise in general. This is acheive their goals. Similarly, for injury preven-
tion and rehabilitation, biomechanics is used to new perspective is simply this:
develop techniques that reduce the chance of
Exercise is simply a mechanical stress injury as well as changes in equipment design to
reduce injury. placed on the body to which the body will
adapt.
Consider the “Job of a Trainer” from chapter 1.
What is the goal of a personal fitness trainer? In order to understand this new perspective and
it’s importance, one must be willing to accept “Help clients reach their goals the most efficient,
effective and safest way possible.” Now com- several premises.
pare that with the goals of biomechanics. They Premise #1
are virtually the same! To reach goals (perfor-
The primary physiological effects of mance enhancement) the most efficient, effec-
exercise (both good and bad) are in direct tive and safest (injury prevention) way possible.
response to the mechanical stress placed
on the body. Remember the GAS Theory from chapter 2? design. The exercises chosen (and how they
The GAS Theory shows us that the body will un- will be implemented) are based on the client’s
dergo adaptations when it is stressed. Exercise goals and needs and your knowledge of how to
can be seen as a mechanical stress (Force/Area), make them adapt safely and efficiently.
placed on the body where the body must ac-
cept forces from external sources and respond Lastly, exercise instruction - the area where most
by creating the appropriate internal forces (from personal trainers associate the importance of
the muscles and connective tissue) to create biomechanics. Put simply, understanding basic
the appropriate movement. The stimulus of biomechanics is the basis of instructing proper
these stressors (both externally and internally), technique.
stimulate the physiological adaptations within
the body. These physiological adaptations may
How do we use Biomechanics to be structural (adaptations to connective tissue
such as muscle, bone and fascia) or functional Maximize Performance and Minimize
(neuromuscular adaptations - i.e. motor learn- Chance of Injury?
ing). There is a systematic thought process that ev-
Premise #2 ery trainer must utilize in order to ensure that
their clients are getting the most of every rep in In order to facilitate the proper adaptations
every set. for our clients we have to understand forc-

es, how they are applied (how much, in what Analyze (movement)
direction, over what range of motion and Optimize
at what speed), and how the tissues of the
in order to... body will adapt to those forces.
Maximize (performance)
Minimize (injury) Put simply, understanding forces and their ef-
fects is at the core of personal fitness training.
What do we Analyze? Remember, there are forces on us all the time
(whether something is moving or not). And if When we evaluate the client’s technique, we are
there is movement, there’s a force that caused doing a biomechanical analysis (and remember,
that . every rep of every set is an assessment). You
should be able to distinguish between what is Premise #3
important and what is unimportant, what is cor-
Proper understanding and implementation rect and what is incorrect, what is possible and
of biomechanics is essential in all aspects what is impossible, what is effective and what
of training (Assess - Design - Instruct). is ineffective, what is safe and what is unsafe,
etc.
When you reach the assessment section, you
will find that much of the assessment process The first thing to evaluate and understand is the
consists of postural and movement assess- movement itself, without regard to the forces
ments. Put simply, these are biomechanical as- that caused it. In physics, this is known as ki-
sessments (looking at how the client’s body has nematics. This would be analyzing such de-
adapted to the forces through the years). These tails as the osteokinematics (planes of motion)
assessments might indicate certain kinetic chain you learned in chapter 3, the direction of mo-
imbalances (short/tight muscles on one side of tion, the path of motion, and the range of mo-
a joint) that need to be addressed. tion. Futhermore, a kinematic analysis might
include basic kinematic variables such as dis-
As previously stated, understanding how the tance, speed and acceleration (which you will
body is going to adapt to the biomechanical learn shortly).
stress you place upon it is essential to program
94 Only after you analyze the kinematics to you Step 1: Describe the Ideal Technique
look at the forces that cause the movement (as In order to train anyone a particular movement,
well as other forces on the body). In physics, you must have a fundamental knowledge of the
this is known as kinetics. skill. This begs the question, how do we know
the “ideal” technique? If it’s a performance
Another way of looking at the analysis process movement, such as pitching a fastball, you’ll
is to look at joints first (both moving and not want to watch successful pitchers, read coach-
moving, describing them kinematically), then ing journals and textbooks, and find any other
the external and internal forces on the body (ki- sources that discusses how successful individ-
netcs). Note, muscles are engineered to move uals apply their skill.
joints in a particular fashion (based on the struc-
ture of the joint). So a basic understanding of More likely, you’ll be describing some sort of ex-
joint structure and function is essential for prop- ercise or drill. Once again, you’ll use the same
er muscle activation (i.e. if we are moving the strategy of researching what the “ideal” tech-
joints properly, then the muscles must be work- nique is. That said, whether your describing
ing properly). Furthermore, we don’t really know a sports-specific skill or an exercise, you must
which internal forces are developed without first think critically and be skeptical of the “experts”.
looking at the external forces that caused it. Just because one person is successful doing
a bench press in a particular fashion doesn’t
mean everyone should use the same technique. Basic Definitions Please remember that your job is to individualize
Kinematics - The study of motion without re- the technique to the individual. It should be cu-
gard to its causes (forces) sotmized to their current abilities, their genetics
and their goals. Kinetics - The study of forces acting on a sys-
tem
The bottom line is when you are researching to Kinesiology - The scientific and artistic study
describe the ideal technique, you are really at- of human movement
tempting to find the common characteristics of
Force - A “push” or a “pull”. Based on New-
the most efficient technique and to appropriately
ton’s Second Law of Motion, Force = Mass x
modify this characteristics with your clients. Acceleration

Step 2: Observe the Client Performing the
How do we Analyze?
Technique
DOE-I: The practical way to Analyze and When observing a client perform a particular
technique, we have to ask ourselves