KAAP 180-final terms

Kinesiology

The academic discipline that studies human movement, physical activity, exercise, sport, and how the body supports performance.

Subdiscipline

A smaller field within kinesiology, such as biomechanics, exercise physiology, motor behavior, sports medicine, or sports nutrition.

Physiological Systems

Groups of organs and tissues that work together, such as the nervous, cardiovascular, muscular, skeletal, digestive, endocrine, and immune systems.

Homeostasis

The body's ability to maintain a stable internal environment even during stress like exercise, heat, sweating, or low energy.

Challenge to Homeostasis

A stress that disrupts body balance during a marathon, such as increased temperature, dehydration, low blood glucose, or fatigue.

Integrative Physiology

The idea that body systems work together during exercise instead of acting separately.

Horizontal Integration

Connecting different body systems or subdisciplines at the same level, like muscles, nerves, blood, and energy during running.

Vertical Integration

Connecting different levels of the body, such as molecules, cells, tissues, organs, systems, and the whole athlete.

Biomechanics

The study of forces and motion in the body, used to analyze movement, injury, performance, and rehab.

Kinematics

The description of motion, such as joint angle, stride length, stride frequency, velocity, and acceleration.

Kinetics

The study of forces that cause or change motion, such as ground reaction force, braking force, and propulsive force.

Ground Reaction Force

The force the ground applies back to the body when the foot contacts the ground.

Force Platform

A tool that measures ground reaction forces during movement.

Anterior-Posterior GRF

The forward-backward ground reaction force; braking slows the runner and propulsion pushes the runner forward.

Center of Pressure

The point under the foot where the ground reaction force is applied at a specific moment.

Rearfoot Strike

A running pattern where the heel contacts the ground first.

Forefoot Strike

A running pattern where the front of the foot contacts the ground first; in this class, midfoot and forefoot are similar.

Gait Retraining

Changing running mechanics, such as switching from rearfoot strike to forefoot strike to reduce patellofemoral knee pain.

Peer Review

The process where scientific work is evaluated by other experts before publication to improve the quality and validity of evidence.

Scientific Method

A structured process for creating knowledge by asking a question, forming a hypothesis, testing it with data, and interpreting results.

Independent Variable

The variable the researcher changes or uses to compare groups; in the triathlon paper, cycling cadence was the independent variable.

Dependent Variable

The variable being measured to see the effect of the independent variable; in the triathlon paper, running speed, stride frequency, and stride length were dependent variables.

Experimental Study

A study where researchers manipulate something, such as cycling cadence, to test its effect on measured outcomes.

Applied Science

Research meant to solve a practical problem; the triathlon paper is applied because it studied how cycling cadence affects running performance.

Stride Frequency

The number of strides per second; in the triathlon paper, faster cycling cadence increased running stride frequency.

Perseveration

The idea that a previous rhythmic movement pattern, like fast cycling cadence, can carry over and influence the next movement, like running stride frequency.

Muscle Contraction

The process where an action potential leads to calcium release, actin-myosin cross-bridge cycling, muscle force production, and then relaxation.

Cross-Bridge Cycling

The repeated attachment, pulling, and detachment of myosin heads on actin that produces muscle force.

Force-Length Relationship

Muscle force depends on muscle length because actin and myosin overlap changes; force is greatest at the optimal length.

Optimal Length

The muscle length where actin and myosin overlap allows the greatest force production.

Force-Velocity Relationship

As concentric contraction velocity increases, force decreases; eccentric contractions can produce the greatest force.

Eccentric Contraction

A muscle contraction where the muscle lengthens while producing force; this produces high force and is strongly linked to DOMS.

Myosin Heavy Chain Isoform

The form of myosin that helps determine whether a muscle fiber is slow twitch or fast twitch and affects shortening velocity.

DOMS

Delayed onset muscle soreness that usually peaks about 24-36 hours after unfamiliar or intense exercise and is not caused by lactic acid.

Repeated Bout Effect

The protective effect where one bout of eccentric exercise reduces muscle damage and soreness from a later similar bout.

Rhabdomyolysis

A severe muscle damage condition where muscle proteins like myoglobin leak into the blood and can damage the kidneys.

Neuromuscular Adaptation

Changes in the nervous system and muscle system that improve strength, power, force control, or movement performance.

Motor Unit

A single motor neuron and all the muscle fibers it controls; when the neuron fires, all those fibers contract together.

Innervation Ratio

The number of muscle fibers controlled by one motor neuron; low ratios allow precision and high ratios allow powerful movements.

Recruitment

Increasing muscle force by activating more motor units.

Rate Coding

Increasing muscle force by increasing how fast motor units fire action potentials.

Motor Unit Firing Rate

The number of action potentials sent by a motor neuron per second; higher firing rates help produce higher force.

Electromyography

EMG; a technique used to measure muscle electrical activity and study neural control of movement, strength, and power.

Myostatin

A protein that acts like a muscle growth brake by limiting skeletal muscle growth.

Neural Adaptation

Strength or power improvements caused by better nervous system activation, such as increased motor unit firing rates, not just bigger muscles.

Bilateral Deficit

When both limbs together produce less force than the sum of each limb tested separately, likely due to neural inhibition.

ATP

The only molecule that directly provides energy for muscle contraction.

Phosphocreatine

Stored high-energy compound in muscle that quickly helps remake ATP during short, powerful exercise.

Glycolysis

The process that breaks down glucose to make ATP quickly; it happens outside the mitochondria and can support high-intensity exercise.

Aerobic Metabolism

ATP production that uses oxygen in the mitochondria; slower than anaerobic systems but supports long-duration exercise.

Mitochondria

The part of the cell where aerobic ATP production, fat oxidation, and much of endurance adaptation occur.

Mechanical Work

Force applied over a distance; work is measured in Joules.

Power

The rate of doing work; power equals work divided by time, or force times velocity, and is measured in Watts.

Wingate Test

A short, all-out cycling test used to measure anaerobic power; it was also part of the sprint interval training protocol.

Sprint Interval Training

Low-volume, very high-intensity training using short all-out bursts; in the Burgomaster paper, it produced similar metabolic adaptations to endurance training.

Oxidative Capacity

The muscle's ability to use oxygen in the mitochondria to produce ATP, often linked to endurance performance.

Cardiovascular System

The heart, blood, and blood vessels; it delivers oxygen and nutrients to working muscles and removes waste during exercise.

Cardiac Output

The amount of blood pumped by the heart per minute; cardiac output equals heart rate times stroke volume.

Stroke Volume

The amount of blood pumped out of the heart with each beat; endurance training increases stroke volume.

Left Ventricle

The heart chamber that pumps oxygenated blood to the body; it is important for endurance performance because it helps determine stroke volume and cardiac output.

Resting Heart Rate

The number of heart beats per minute at rest; it decreases with endurance training because each beat pumps more blood.

Capillarization

The growth of more capillaries around muscle fibers, improving oxygen delivery and waste removal.

Blood Doping

An illegal method to increase oxygen delivery by increasing red blood cells or hemoglobin, often through EPO or blood transfusion.

RER

Respiratory exchange ratio; a value near 0.7 means mostly fat use, while a value near 1.0 means mostly carbohydrate use.

Fat Oxidation

The use of fat as fuel during aerobic metabolism, especially during long-duration lower-intensity exercise.

Lipoprotein Lipase

An enzyme involved in making fat available for energy; in the ultraendurance paper, LPL mRNA increased after the race.

Sensorimotor Integration

The coordination of sensory information and motor action to control movement and balance.

Balance

The ability to maintain body stability during static or dynamic tasks, even when perturbations occur.

Proprioception

Sensory information about body position and movement in space, coming from receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints.

Vestibular System

The sensory system in the inner ear that helps detect head position, motion, and balance.

Muscle Spindle

A sensory receptor in muscle that detects muscle stretch and helps trigger the stretch reflex.

Golgi Tendon Organ

A sensory receptor in the tendon that detects muscle tension or force.

Stretch Reflex

A rapid reflex response to muscle stretch, such as the quadriceps contracting after a patellar tendon tap.

Anticipatory Postural Adjustment

A feedforward balance response where muscles activate before a predictable perturbation to prepare the body.

Center of Mass

The body's balance point; smaller center of mass movement after a perturbation means better postural stability.

Motor Behavior

An umbrella subdiscipline that includes motor control, motor learning, and motor development.

Motor Control

The study of how the nervous system controls movement, posture, balance, reflexes, and coordination.

Motor Learning

The study of how practice and feedback lead to improved skill performance over time.

Motor Development

The study of how movement abilities change across the lifespan, such as children learning balance or aging affecting reaction time.

Sport and Exercise Psychology

The study of thoughts, emotions, motivation, personality, and mental states related to sport, exercise, and performance.

Psychometric Test

A scientifically developed questionnaire or test used to measure mental or emotional constructs like mood, anxiety, pain, or positive affect.

POMS

Profile of Mood States; a psychometric test that measures current mood using ratings of feelings like tense, angry, fatigued, confused, and vigorous.

Information Processing

The way the brain receives information, recognizes the stimulus, selects a response, and programs the movement.

Choice Reaction Time

A reaction time task with multiple possible stimuli and responses; it measures information processing because more choices slow responses.

Runner's High

A rewarding feeling after moderate or intense aerobic exercise linked to endocannabinoids, positive affect, reduced anxiety, and reduced pain.

Natural Selection

The process where traits that improve survival or reproduction become more common in a population over generations.

Sickle Cell Trait

Having one sickle cell allele and one normal allele; it can provide protection against malaria.

Sickle Cell Disease

Having two sickle cell alleles, causing red blood cells to sickle and leading to anemia, pain, and health complications.

Heterozygous

Having two different alleles for a gene, such as one sickle cell allele and one normal allele.

Malaria

A mosquito-borne disease that helped preserve the sickle cell trait in tropical regions because the trait gave survival protection.

Hypobaric Hypoxia

Low oxygen availability caused by lower air pressure at high altitude.

EPAS1

A gene involved in high-altitude adaptation in Sherpa/Tibetan populations and connected to responses to low oxygen.

Sherpa Paradox

Sherpa adaptations can seem opposite of what lowlanders do at altitude, such as having lower hemoglobin but still performing well in hypoxia.

Hypoxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction

Constriction of blood vessels in the lungs in response to low oxygen; in this unit HPV means hypoxic pulmonary vasociction, not human papillomavirus.

Blood Viscosity

The thickness of blood; high altitude can increase red blood cells and hematocrit, making blood thicker and harder to pump.

Chronic Mountain Sickness

A maladaptive response to long-term high-altitude exposure involving excessive red blood cells, low oxygen saturation, and symptoms like headache or breathlessness.

Beetroot Juice

A source of nitrate that can increase nitric oxide availability, which may improve blood flow and oxygen efficiency during exercise or hypoxia.

Nitric Oxide

A signaling molecule that helps blood vessels dilate and may improve oxygen delivery and blood flow.

Glucose Sparing

Using more fat for energy so blood glucose and muscle glycogen are conserved during long-duration exercise or hypoxia.