Dynamic Factor Analysis and the Exercise Sciences

Abstract

The genesis of human movement involves a complex series of events that depend on the integrated physiology of the neural, muscular, skeletal, metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Since each of us has a unique set of physical attributes, such as muscle strength, aerobic capacity, and skeletal structure, our movement patterns serve as another set of "fingerprints". For instance, we can often tell that it is our friend in the distance by the characteristic way that they walk. Key to our ability to distinguish such movement patterns is the way in which the patterns evolve over time. If someone showed you a cine film depicting your friend's walking silhouette, but first chopped up the film, shuffled the pieces around, and glued the film back together, one would likely fail to identify the person in the video as their friend because crucial temporal relationships would be lost.