Curriculum Information

The students will be taught key distinctions aligned with principles relating to exercise, physical activity and play.

The students will be introduced to how the structures of the body function internally and specifically how they respond and react to external forces applied to them, to ultimately lead to human movement. They will be taught basic understanding of mechanical principles and their application to movement. Students will be required to move extensively during this module and to develop meaningful context for taught materials. Consent and considerations regarding reasonable adjustments will be managed delicately to avoid any student having to draw attention to a physical impairment.

External biomechanics
Describes external forces on body segments and their effect on body movement

Static and dynamic domains will be introduced and will include content focused on kinematics

- Type of motion or displacement (linear/angular)
- The location (inc: planes of movement)
- The direction (movement through planes and axis)
- The magnitude (angular -goniometer/linear testing)
- Rate of the motion or displacement (speed/velocity)

Internal Biomechanics
Internal biomechanics are forces generated by the body tissues and their effect on movement.

- Stress-Strain Curve
- Osteokinematic and Arthrokinematic
- Concave-convex rule
- Closed and Open/Loose-Packed Position

Physiotherapy applied anatomy and biomechanics relating to

- Active and passive range of movement
- Active and passive insufficiency
- Newton’s Law of Motion
- Ergonomic orthopaedic devices e.g advanced walking aids
- Kinetic chain (open and closed)
- Machine (Lever and fulcrums, wheel and axle and Pulleys)

The content will be delivered alongside movement-based tasks and then broken down through analysis to understand the key principles and how they apply to impact on the body during motion. The students will identify key learning needs.

Through movement analysis, students will be afforded opportunity to problem solve with peers and experience applied biomechanical principles. Chosen tasks and movement problems will provide the framework for students to understand the need to utilise biomechanics in exercise design in order to elicit a desired outcome. This concept will be explored and developed in the presence of injury or impairment replication by the use of compensated movement patterns through constraint based non-linear pedagogical tasks. Movement through play will also allow for constraint-based movement exploration where students are given opportunity to experiment with novel movements while addressing key biomechanical principles.

This will nurture students’ creative processes and develop both critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills, allowing them to solve problems for patients in a real world context, where problems may present with a variety of contributing factors.