Stair Walking - Paper Example

All living things, including humans, are continuously subjected to various universal forces, such as the gravitational force. Additionally, by studying a humans behavior as he/she interacts with such forces, it is possible to understand the form, function as well as the motion of his/her body. Human locomotion is achieved through an intricate process of well-synchronized mechanical interaction of joints, bones, ligaments as well as muscles, which are all situated within the bodys musculoskeletal system. The term kinesiology characterizes the scientific study of humans body movement. The study is focused on addressing biomechanical, psychological as well as physiological mechanisms of movement. On the other hand, biomechanics characterizes the learning of the structure as well as the functioning of various mechanical aspects of a persons organs, cells, along with cell organelles. This is a research paper that addresses the concept of stair walking in the perspective of biomechanical and kinesiological aspects of human movement.

Biomechanics of Stair Walking

Stair walking is a common phenomenon that has been experienced by numerous persons at least once in the course of their lives. In the contemporary society, stair walking is just as common as getting a taxi or going to the market for groceries. Nevertheless, not many persons understand the biomechanics of stair walking on their bodies. In a biological perspective, stair walking creates an elevated dynamic loading on a persons musculoskeletal system (Loy & Voloshin, 1991). This is a form of pressure that is subjected to the musculoskeletal components joints, ligaments, bones to facilitate the movement of a persons whole body mass. Additionally, different people exert different levels of pressure on their musculoskeletal systems based on the overall body mass. The heavier the persons, the more the weight that he/she exerts on his/her musculoskeletal system during an ascent or descent on a flight of stairs.

Shock waves refer to the various forms of pressure disturbances that occur in any form of an elastic medium after a displacement has taken place. Additionally, during the stair walking exercise, shock waves are impacted by a persons musculoskeletal system. Furthermore, managing the level of shock waves subjected to the musculoskeletal is remarkably important as it ensures that a person does not suffer pain due to the tissues wear and tear. Additionally, according to Loy and Voloshin (1991)s research, such shock waves that are exerted by the action of stair walking can be measured using accelerometers, externally attached on an individuals musculoskeletal system. Furthermore, such an accelerometer can enable a researcher to perform an in-vivo monitoring of all the shock waves that invades the musculoskeletal system during the stair walking exercise. Ultimately, the biomechanical knowledge of shock waves is important, because such pressures are also primary contributors to the locomotion of the musculoskeletal body system.

Significance of Understanding Stair Walking Biomechanics in Clinical Practice

The biomechanical knowledge of stair walking can aid in understanding how injuries on various musculoskeletal components occur, as well as how they can be managed or averted. During the walking exercise, a person can either attain an injury through a fall or due to excessive tension or strength exerted in the musculoskeletal framework by the body mass. Subsequently, such excessive forces of a persons musculoskeletal system can result in an injury or lesion. All in all, any injury or a lesion on any individual component of the musculoskeletal system results to a significant change in the manner in which a person moves from one place to another. Furthermore, an injury or lesion can change the mechanical interactions of the different components of the musculoskeletal system, which would then result in degradation, instability as well as disability movement. Nevertheless, the proper modification, control as well as manipulation of the musculoskeletal mechanical environment can aid in averting injuries, improving the rate of healing, remedying abnormality and also as a form of rehabilitation.

For these reasons, it is imperative for medical practitioners to comprehend the biomechanics as well as loading of each component of the musculoskeletal during movement through motion analysis. Additionally, such knowledge can be beneficial in learning about disease etiology as well as in making decisions on the type of treatment interventions to use in treating a patient with musculoskeletal system problems. Furthermore, this knowledge can help a medical practitioner to evaluate the various of treatments that could be employed in medicating a person with a musculoskeletal medical condition. Additionally, some of the examples of motion analysis concepts that have been employed in medicating various medical conditions among patients include orthoses, prostheses, and sporting exercises. Additionally, according to Lu and Chang (2012)s research, the study of the biomechanics of peoples movement as well as its clinical applications can be linked to existing engineering techniques and technologies. This is in an effort to promote further the effectiveness of human movement related interventions in the clinical practice.

Kinesiology in Human Motion

Kinesiology is also a human motion behavior that can be employed to explain the process through which a persons body follows through the stair walking exercise. In a humans motion analysis, kinesiology is primarily focused on the bodys muscles as well as their functioning (Cutler & Tunkel, 2013). The field is focused on the study of human movement, function as well as performance through the application of concepts such as biomechanics, physiology, neuroscience as well as anatomy. Additionally, kinesiology is also focused on body movement and the muscles creating such movements through strength exercises as well as sporting methodologies. During the stair walking activity, the body is exposed to various medical conditions that could result from the inappropriate exertion of the pressure of the body muscles. As such, it is essential to understand how muscle testing, a concept in kinesiology, can be employed in the clinical settings to treat various medical conditions occurring from body muscle movement.

Muscle Testing in Kinesiology and Its Significance in the Clinical Practice

It is also referred as the applied kinesiology, which is a form of muscle strength testing methodology used in the clinical practice. When used in kinesiology, it can be described as the process of communicating with the bodys innate intelligence. This is in an effort to attain a variety of data pertaining the state of mind and body and how phenomena in their environment affect them. Additionally, when used in disease diagnosis and treatment, the medical practitioners believe that all muscles in the body are linked to various organs as well as glands. Subsequently, any significant muscle weakness can an indicator of a particular internal body problem. Examples of such a problem could be a nerve damage or inflammation, reduced level of blood supply, gland or organ problems as well as chemical imbalance among others. Additionally, according to medical practitioners who use muscle testing as a clinical intervention, through correcting a muscle weakness, it is possible to cure or treat an associated internal problem.

Furthermore, medical practitioners believe that muscle testing can be used to diagnose as well as treat nervous system complications. Furthermore, it can be employed as a remedy for nutritional deficiencies as well as excesses, and in correcting osmoregulation imbalance among other medical conditions. In China, applied kinesiology has been used for centuries as a way of treating a diverse array of medical conditions. Today, such treatments are also known as the meridians in the traditional Chinese medicine. Additionally, the use of muscle testing technique as a clinical intervention was first developed by George Goodheart in 1964 (Weissman, 2007). He was a Michigan-based chiropractor, and his contributions to the field of kinesiology greatly impacted todays knowledge of human body movement (Mollon, 2007). Today, Chiropractors use the applied kinesiology method to treat common medical conditions such as abdominal pains, diabetes, vertigo, cancer, severe headaches, osteoporosis, learning disabilities as well as the Parkinsons disease.

Process of Treating Conditions Using Applied Kinesiology

When using muscle testing as a medical intervention, a chiropractor gently applies a little pressure on the affected region. He/she then gradually increase the pressure on the same region using a rhythmic transition for an appropriate period. Additionally, in order to test whether the patients condition has improved after the intervention, he/she can be asked to support the ailing part of his/her body without any assistance of chiropractors induced pressure. In this case, if the patient is unable to hold the ailing position using his ailing muscle in the musculoskeletal system, the region is considered weak and in need of further medical attention. However, if the region that has been treated using applied kinesiology has improved, the process can be repeated several times for the oncoming days until the patient is fully cured. Ultimately, there are three reasons why a chiropractor can use muscle testing technique for treatment.

First, he/she can use it to determine the mental as well as emotional stressors on a patient that be cleared through the use of various body or muscles movement techniques. Additionally, doctors can also use muscle testing to ascertain the acupuncture meridians, which could appear to be out of balance in a patient. Lastly, muscle testing can be employed for evaluating and balancing the chakras in a patient. In this case, the chakras are all energy vortexes in a patient, that affect his/her body, mind as well as spirit. Also, muscle testing can be employed by patients to determine the factors in their environment that could be affecting their health. Also, muscle testing can be employed to determine the specific emotions in a patient that could be resulting to the buildup of unhealthy energy in the patient, which eventually results to an energy blockage in the body and eventually the development of diseases.

Significance of Applied Kinesiology to the Stair Walking Exercise

In light of the featured discussion of applied kinesiology, it is evident that all forms of injuries on a patient caused by the stair walking exercise can be remedied by using the muscle testing. In this case, a chiropractor can relieve the stress or pain on the injured leg muscle by placing varying levels of pressure on the affected muscles. Also, this should be done alternatively until the pain or disease affecting the leg muscles used in the stair climbing activity have been remedied. Furthermore, this form of treatment is based on the belief that all parts of the body are interconnected. As such, relieving the pain of an affected region through the leg muscles can aid in treating an internal medical condition such as the glands or tissue tears. Nevertheless, more clinical interventions should also be employed for treating more adverse medical situations attained as a result of stair walking, if applied kinesiology is found out to be ineffective.

Advancement in Methodologies of Calculating Human Motion

In both the academic and clinical practice, the formulation of human motion during various activities is of paramount importance. This is because it can be employed for the motion analysis in academics and the treatment of musculo...