The anatomy of

Human Movement

Anatomy is the identification and

description of the structures of living
things.

The word anatomy comes from

the Greek ana- meaning "up",
and tome- meaning "a cutting".

TRIVIA
Anatomy, especially in the
past,
has
depended
heavily on dissection. In
Greek and Latin the words
"anatomy"
and
"dissection" have virtually
the same meanings.

The Bodys
Movements

Movements of the human musculoskeletal

system
Planes and axes of movement
Movements in the sagittal plane about the
frontal axis
Movements in the frontal plane about the
sagittal axis
Movements in the horizontal plane about the
vertical axis
Movements of the thumb
Circumduction of the arm and leg
Movements of the shoulder girdle
Pelvic girdle movements

human
musculoskeletal
A precise description
of
system
human
movement
requires the definition
of a reference position
or posture from which
these movements are
specified.
The
two
positions used are the
fundamental
and
anatomical
reference
positions.

Planes and axes of

movement

Movements in the sagittal plane about the frontal axis

Flexion:
Decreasing
the angle between two
bones
Extension:
Increasing
the Angle between two
bones
Dorsiflexion:
Moving
the top of the foot
toward the shin (only at
the ankle)
Plantar flexion: moving

Movements in the frontal plane about the sagittal axis

Adduction: Motion toward the

midline
Abduction: Motion away from
Lateral
flexion
to body
the right or
the midline
of the
to
the left, Moving
shown in to
Figure
Elevation:
a
6.1(a),
the sideways
superioris position
(only at the
bending
scapula) of the trunk to the
right
or left and,
normally,
Depression:
Moving
to the
an
return
from at the
inferiormovement
position (only
the
opposite side.
scapula)
Inversion: Lifting the medial
border of the foot
Eversion: Lifting the lateral

Pronation of the foot involves a combination of

eversion and abduction along with dorsiflexion of
the ankle.
Supination

involves

inversion

and

adduction

Ulnar flexion, also

known
as
ulnar
deviation,
denotes
the movement of the
middle
finger
towards the middle
of the body and can
also be used for the
other fingers.

Radial flexion also

known
as
radial
deviation denotes the
movement
of
the
middle
finger
away
from the middle of the
body and can also be
used for the other
fingers.

Movements in the horizontal

plane about the vertical axis
External and internal rotation
External and internal rotation of the forearm are referred
are the outwards and inwards
to, respectively, as supination and pronation.
movements of the leg or arm
about their longitudinal axes
these movements are also
known, respectively, as lateral
and medial rotation.

Rotation to the left and rotation to the right

are the rather obvious terms for horizontal
plane movements of the head, neck and
trunk.
Horizontal
flexion
and extension (or
horizontal
abduction
and
adduction), define
the rotation of the
arm
about
the
shoulder joint or the
leg about the hip
joint from a position

Movements of the thumb

Abduction
and adduction are
Extension and flexion refer
to
Opposition
is
the
used to movement
define movements
frontal plane movements
of the thumb
and the
towards
the
away from and towards away
the fromto touch
tip of any
of
palm of thethe
hand
the sagittal
fourinfingers
of the
index finger
Hyperflexion is the movement beyond
same hand. It involves
planethe
starting position.

Hyperadduction
is the continuationand
of
abduction
adduction beyond
the starting position.
hyperflexion
of
the

thumb.

Circumduction of the arm and

leg

The movement of the arm or leg to

describe a cone is called circumduction and
is a combination of flexion and extension

Movements of the shoulder

girdle
Elevation, and depression are upward and
downward linear movements of the scapula.
Protraction and retraction
describe the movements of
the scapula away from and
towards
the
vertebral
column.
Posterior and anterior tilt
are
the
upwards
and
downwards
movement,
respectively, of the inferior
angle the lower tip of
the scapula away from or

Pelvic girdle movements

Changes in the position of the pelvis are brought about by the
motions at the lumbosacral joint, between the lowest lumbar
vertebra and the sacrum, and the hip joints.
Forward tilt, involves increased
inclination in the sagittal plane
about the frontal axis. This results
from lumbosacral hyperextension
and, in the standing position, hip
flexion.
Backward tilt, involves decreased
inclination in the sagittal plane
about the frontal axis. This results
from lumbosacral flexion and, in
the
standing
position,
hip
extension.

Lateral tilt is the movement of the pelvis in the frontal

plane about the sagittal axis such that one iliac crest is
Rotation or
twist is
is raised.
the rotation of the pelvis in the
lowered
andlateral
the other
horizontal plane about a vertical axis.

THE

SKELETO
N AND ITS
BONES
Bone structure
Classification of
bones
The surface of a
bone

Axial
skeleton
is
comprised of
the
skull,
lower
jaw,
vertebrae,
ribs,
sternum, sacrum and
coccyx,
which
is
mainly protective.
Appendicular
skeleton
consists of the shoulder
girdle
and
upper
extremities, and the pelvic
girdle
and
lower
extremities,
which
functions in movement.

BONE STRUCTURE

Types of Bone
Tissue
1 Cortical or compact
bone to support the whole
Cortical bone facilitates bone's main functions:
2 Trabecularand
or cancellous
body, protect organs, provide levers for movement,
store and
release chemical elements, mainly calcium.bone
Cancellous bone is made up of spongy, porous, bone tissue that is
filled with red bone marrow. It is not as strong as cortical bone, which
is found in the long bones, but it is very important for producing

Classification of Bones
The function of flat bones is to
protect internal organs such as
the brain, heart, and pelvic
organs. Flat bones are somewhat
flattened,
and
can
provide
protection, like a shield; flat
bones can also provide large
areas of attachment for muscles.
The long bones, longer than they
are wide, include the femur (the
longest bone in the body) as well
as relatively small bones in the
fingers. Long bones function to
support the weight of the body
and facilitate movement.

Short bones are about as

long as they are wide.
Located in the wrist and
ankle joints, short bones
provide stability and some
movement.
Irregular bones vary in shape and
structure and therefore do not fit into
any other category (flat, short, long,
or sesamoid). They often have a fairly
complex shape, which helps protect
internal organs.

Sesamoid bones function to protect

tendons from stress and wear. The
patella, commonly referred to as the
kneecap, is an example of a sesamoid
bone.

Surface of
a bone
The surfaces of bones
bear
projections,
depressions, ridges, and
various other features. A
process (projection) on
one bone may fit with a
depression on a second
bone to form a joint.
Another process allows
for the attachment of a
muscle
or
ligament.
Grooves and openings
provide passageways for
blood vessels or nerves.

Bone Fracture

A bone fracture can be the result of high force impact or stress, or a minimal
trauma injury as a result of certain medical conditions that weaken the bones,
such as osteoporosis, bone cancer, or osteogenesis imperfecta, where the

JOINTS OF THE
BODY Joint
classification
Joint stability
and mobility

Joint Classification
Joints can be easily classified by the type of tissue present. Using this
method, one can split the joints of the body into fibrous, cartilaginous and
synovial joints.

SYNOVIAL
JOINTS

Joint Stability and Flexibility

The stability, or immobility, of a joint is the joints
resistance to displacement. It depends on the
following
factors:
The shape of the bony structure, including the type of joint and
the shape of the bones.
The ligamentous arrangement, including the joint capsule, which is
crucial in, for example, the knee joint.
The arrangement of fascia, tendons and aponeuroses.
Position joints are more stable in the close-packed position, with
maximal contact
between the articular surfaces and with the ligaments taut, than in a loosepacked
position.
Atmospheric
joint, as in the
hip joint.

pressure,

providing it exceeds the pressure within the

Muscle structure
Muscle activation
Naming muscles
Structural classification of muscles
Types of muscle contraction
Group action of muscles
The mechanics of muscular contraction
Development of tension in a muscle
Muscle stiffness
The stretchshortening cycle
Muscle force components and the angle of
Muscles the powerhouse of pull

movement

Muscle Structure
Each skeletal muscle fiber is a single
cylindrical muscle cell. An individual
skeletal muscle may be made up of
hundreds, or even thousands, of
muscle fibers bundled together and
wrapped in a connective tissue
Each muscle is surrounded by a
covering.

connective tissue sheath called

the epimysium. Fascia, connective
tissue outside the epimysium,
surrounds and separates the
muscles.
Portions of the epimysium project inward to divide the muscle into
compartments. Each compartment contains a bundle of muscle
fibers. Each bundle of muscle fiber is called a fasciculus and is
surrounded by a layer of connective tissue called the perimysium.
Within the fasciculus, each individual muscle cell, called a muscle

Muscle Activation
Precise muscle control
involves muscle activation
and contraction, and the
interaction of multiple
muscles to control body
movement.
Although
moving your arm may
seem like a simple act, it
requires a complex set of
activities involving the
brain, nervous system,
nerves,
and
muscles.
Read on to learn more
about about how all of

Naming Muscles
In the scientific literature muscles are
nearly always known by their Latin names.
The full name is musculus, which is often
omitted or abbreviated to m or M.,
followed by adjectives or genitives of
nouns.
The name may refer to role, location, size
or shape of the muscle.
An example of a muscle named after its
location is the latissimus dorsi the
broadest (latissimus) muscle of the back.
The flexor digitorum profundus is named
after its role the deep (profundus) flexor
Muscles
are often described by their role, such as the flexors of the
of
the fingers.

knee and the abductors of the humerus. Most muscles have more
than one role in movement; multi- joint muscles have roles at more
than one joint.

Structural classification of
muscles
A collinear
muscle is have
capable
of
Pennate,
or penniform,
shorter
shortening
by about
one-third
to onefascicles
than
collinear
muscles;
the
half of are
its angled
bellys away
length.
fascicles
fromSuch
an
muscles have
large
range of
elongated
tendon.a This
arrangement
movement,
by the
allows
more which
fibres isto limited
be recruited,
fractionprovides
of the muscle
length that
is
which
a stronger,
more
tendinous.muscle
These atmuscles
are very
powerful
the expense
of
common
in the extremities
are
range
of movement
and
speedand
the
(a) Longitudinal
muscles
consist
ofoflong,
Unipennate
muscles
lie to one side of
further
divided
as follows.
limb
moved.
strap-like
fascicles
parallel to the long
theaxis
tendon, extending diagonally as
a series of short, parallel fascicles,
(b) Quadrate muscles are four-sided,
Bipennate
muscles
have a long
usually
flat, with
parallel fascicles.

central tendon, with fascicles in

(c)
Fan-shaped
areside.
relatively flat
diagonal
pairsmuscles
on either
with
almost
parallel
fascicles
that
converge towards the insertion point.

Multipennate muscles converge to

several
tendons,
giving
a
(d)
Fusiform muscles
are usually
rounded,
herringbone
effectend, and include the
tapering
at either

Collinear muscles: (a) longitudinal; (b) quadrate

rhomboidal; (c) quadrate rectangular; (d) fanshaped; (e) fusiform. Pennate muscles: (f )
unipennate; (g) bipennate; (h) multipennate.

Types of muscle contraction

The term muscle contraction refers
to the development of tension
within the muscle.

In
isometric,
or
static,
contraction,
the
muscle
develops tension with no change
in overall muscle length, as
when
holding
a
dumbbell
stationary in a biceps curl.
In concentric contraction, the
muscle shortens as tension is
developed, as when a dumbbell
is raised in a biceps curl.
In eccentric contraction, the
muscle develops tension while it
lengthens, as in the lowering
movement in a biceps curl.

Group action of muscles

The muscles that directly bring about a movement by contracting
concentrically are known as the agonists, which means movers. This group
is sometimes divided into prime movers, which always contract to cause the
movement, and assistant movers, which only contract against resistance or
at high speed.
Antagonists are muscles that cause the opposite movement from that of
specified agonists. Their normal role in group action is to relax when the
agonists contract, although there are many exceptions to this
Stabilisers contract statically to fix one bone against the pull of the agonists
so that the bone at the other end can move effectively. Muscles that contract
statically to prevent movements caused by gravity are sometimes called
supporting muscles, such as the abdominal muscles in push-ups.

Neutralisers prevent undesired actions of the agonists when the

agonists have more than one function. They may do this by acting in
pairs, as mutual neutralisers, when they enhance the required action

The mechanics of muscular

contraction
Muscle twitch

The muscle twitch is the mechanical response of a muscle to a single, brief, low
intensity stimulus. The muscle contracts and then relaxes, as represented in
Figure 6.11(a).

Wave summation and tetanus

The duration of an action potential is only a few milliseconds, which is

very short compared with the following twitch. It is therefore possible
for a series of action potentials, known as an action potential train, to
be initiated before the muscle has completely relaxed.

The contractions are additive and the phenomenon is called

wave summation.

Wave summation and tetanus

Increasing the stimulation rate will result in greater tension

development as the relaxation time decreases until it eventually
disappears. When this occurs, a smooth, sustained contraction
results called tetanus; this is the normal form of muscle contraction
in the body.

Multiple
motor
unit
summation
The wide gradation of contractions within

muscles is
achieved mainly by the differing activities in their
various motor units in stimulation rate and in the
number of units recruited. The repeated, asynchronous
twitching of all the recruited motor units leads to brief
summations
or
longer
subtetanic
or
tetanic
contractions of the whole muscle.

Treppe

The initial contractions in the muscle are relatively

weak, only about half as strong as those that occur
later. The tension development then has a staircase
pattern called treppe, which is related to the suddenly
increased availability of calcium ions, leading to the
pattern of increasingly strongcontractions with

Development of tension in a
muscle
Factors affecting the Tension Development
The number of fibres recruited and their firing (or stimulation) rate and
synchrony.
The relative size of the muscle the tension is proportional to the
physiological cross-sectional area of the muscle; about 0.3 N force can be
exerted per square millimetre of cross-sectional area.
The temperature of the muscle and muscle fatigue.
The pre-stretch of the muscle a muscle that develops tension after being
stretched (the stretchshortening cycle) performs more work because of
elastic energy storage and other mechanisms; the energy is stored mostly in
the series elastic elements but also in the parallel elastic ones.
The mechanical properties of the muscle, as expressed by the length
tension, force velocity and tensiontime relationships

Length-tension relationship

Force-velocity relationship

Tension-time relationship

Muscle stiffness
The
mechanical
stiffness
of
a
muscle
is
the
instantaneous rate
of change of force
with length it is
the slope of the
muscle
tension
length
curve.
Unstimulated

The stretchshortening cycle

Many muscle contractions in dynamic movements in sport undergo a

stretchshortening cycle, in which the eccentric phase is considered
to enhance performance in the concentric phase. The mechanisms
thought to be involved are pre-load, elastic energy storage and
release (mostly in tendon), and reflex potentiation. The stretch
shortening effect has not been accurately measured or fully

Electromyography what
muscles do
Electromyography is the technique for recording changes in
the electrical potential of a muscle when it is caused to
contract by a motor nerve impulse. The neural stimulation of
the muscle fibre at the motor end-plate results in a reduction
of the electrical potential of the cell and a spread of the action
potential through the muscle fibre.

The motor action potential (MAP),

or muscle fibre action potential, is
the name given to the waveform
resulting from this depolarisation
wave. This propagates in both
directions along each muscle fibre
from the motor end-plate before
being followed by a repolarisation
wave. The summation in space and
time of motor action potentiamotor
unit action potential (MUAP, Figure
6.18).

A sequence of MUAPs, resulting

from repeated neural stimulation,
is referred to as a motor unit
action potential train (MUAPT).
The physiological EMG signal is
the sum, over space and time, of
the MUAPT from the various
motor units (Figure 6.18).

Isokinetic dynamometry
The measurement of the net muscle torque at a joint using isokinetic dynamometry is
very useful in providing an insight into muscle function and in obtaining muscle
performance data for various modelling purposes (isokinetic is derived from Greek
words meaning constant velocity)

Isokinetic
dynamometry
is
used to measure the net
muscle torque (called muscle
torque in the rest of this
section) during isolated joint
movements.
This
A
variable
allowsresistive
the measurement
torque is applied
of muscle
to
the limb
torque
assegment
a function
under
of joint
consideration;
angle and
the limb velocity,
angular
moves atwhich,
constant
at angular
certain
velocitymay
joints,
oncethen
the preset
be related
velocity
to has
the
been achieved,
length
and contraction
providingvelocity
the person
of a
being measured
predominant
primeismover.
able By
to adjusting
maintain
that velocity
the
resistivein torque,
the specified
both range
muscle
of

Reference
Introduction to Sports Biomechanics
by Roger Bartlett