What is kinesiology and exercise science? The study of movement is kinesiology and the science of exercise is the exploration of specific movements in relation to fitness and health. The kinesthetic aspect of the program relates to motion as it realates to health and mental functioning.

Movement, Mental Processing and Mood

Many studies suggest that activity has a direct effect on mental functioning and mood. A sedentary person is more likely to develop depression, inattention, and the inability to focus. Kinesiology is related to language development and communication skills as well.

The motor theory of language suggests that all language is rooted in neurological motor systems based in movement. Fundamentally, all communication arises out of motion. Mental processes, though appearing to be sedentary are based in activity and motion.

Kinesiology

Kinesiology explores movement in regards to intellect with the combination of motion. The field looks at various populations including the elderly, children, athletes, and people with physical challenges due to disabilities or health disease. The approach explore motion in the following realms:

* Life skills
* Exercise
* Physical fitness
* Dancing
* Playing
* Working
* Engaging in sports

The study of human movement is a field that brings together a number of different elements. When you explore motion, you naturally touch upon the following topics, especially in regards to alternative and complementary medicine.

* Psychology
* Physical fitness
* Biochemistry
* Biology
* Neurology

This topic is applicable to health as well as various treatment modalities, including forms of alternative and complementary medicine. The better that an individual understands the science of human motion, the better able he or she is to adopt health practices that are most effective.

What is Exercise Science?

What is exercise science? Not everyone makes the connection between science and exercise, but the two are deeply connected. Every movement, even the most seemingly simplistic motion involves complicated neurological and physical components that work together to make the motion possible. In addition, each movement has ramifications on the mind, body and spirit.

Exercise science explores everything about movement from nutrition to injury and illness. This field of study helps us understand how the body functions from the fundamental origins of movement, including biological, chemical and nutritional realms.

Kinesiology and Exercise Medicine

Kinesiology and exercise medicine relate to more than fitness and workouts. The fields of study look at the inner workings of motion and exercise as well as their impact on the body in various realms. The comprehensive perspective on motion offers new insight into the importance of activity and health

Each approach looks at the body as a machine that drives the mind and emotions through motion. Thought, emotional processing and motion are each interconnected and those who explore the fundamentals of the connection between the body and the mind may want to consider the motor theory of language, kinesiology and exercise medicine.

Posted via email from chirohealthnews’s posterous

Researchers found that of the “least-fit” versus the “slightly more fit” in a recent study of nearly 4,400 healthy Americans, roughly 20 percent with the lowest physical fitness levels were twice as likely to die over the nine years of the study as the 20 percent with the next-lowest fitness levels. (In other words, those 20 percent who were almost at the lowest fitness levels.) This is the familiar “bad news/good news” outcome. It is certainly bad news if you are a dyed-in-the-wool spectator in life. But, it is definitely good news for those who haven’t entirely embraced a sedentary lifestyle but are not, by definition, exertive. Apparently, those people who continue to be just moderately fit as they age may have a longer lifespan than those who are totally out-of-shape, the study suggests.

The study included 4,384 middle-aged and older men and women whose fitness levels were evaluated during exercise treadmill tests sometime between 1986 and 2006. For an average of nine years thereafter, the researchers observed the study groups progress. Such factors as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure were considered in the study. This, in and of itself, underscores the value of being physically fit. In an email to Reuters Health, Dr. Sandra Mandic, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and lead researcher of the study noted: “Our findings suggest that a sedentary lifestyle, rather than differences in cardiovascular risk factors or age, may explain the two-fold higher mortality rates in the least-fit versus slightly more fit individuals.”

Nearly two-thirds of the least-fit study participants failed to get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, five or more days a week, which was the minimum recommended amount of exercise. “These results emphasize the importance of improving and maintaining high fitness levels by engaging in regular physical activity,” Mandic said, “particularly in poorly-fit individuals.”

Classifying the study group participants by fitness levels, the researchers discovered that 25 percent of the least-fit individuals had died during the study period, versus 13 percent of those who were slightly more in shape. Among adults in the most-fit group (the ones who hit “a bull’s eye”, so to speak) only 6 percent died during the follow-up period.

The five fitness-level groups showed little dissimilarity, overall, in their reported exercise habits during most of their adult lives, but notably, they differed in activity levels only in recent years. “Since it is recent physical activity that offers protection,” Mandic said, “it is important to maintain regular physical activity throughout life.”

In this particular study, regardless of weight and other health issues such as those mentioned above, fitness is undeniably linked to longevity. As such, exercise is essential to extending our lifespan. And, naturally, imagine the health advantages we could all derive if we worked towards the higher levels of fitness.

SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2009.

Technorati Tags: exercise, longevity, middle age, physical fitness