Summary
Contents
This book provides students and scholars with a fail-safe guide to the key concepts in the field of Sport & Exercise Science. Intelligently cross-referenced entries provide a sound map of the multi-disciplinary demands of sport related courses including physical and biological sciences, social science and education. The entries use clear definitions, examples, and suggestions for further reading to explore each discipline.
Muscles, Strength and Power
Muscles, Strength and Power
The relative importance of strength and power varies widely in different sports. In particular, in sports such as weightlifting, throwing, jumping and sprinting events, strength and power are very important for maximisation of performance, while for other sports such as marathon running and pistol shooting, they are much less important.
A plethora of factors can affect the ability of the human body to generate force or torque (turning force): the type of muscular actions (eccentric, concentric, isometric, isokinetic), the length of the muscles, the speed of movement, the cross-sectional and physiological cross-sectional area of the muscles, the number and type of muscle fibres stimulated, the frequency of stimulation, the joint angle, lever length and body size.
The scope of this chapter ...
