This book is the first major text on the kinematics of human motion and is written by one of the world's leading authorities on the subject.

The book begins with careful descriptions of how to study human body position and displacement without regard to time, velocity, or acceleration. Then Dr. Zatsiorsky examines differential kinematics of human motion by ""adding"" the variables of velocity and acceleration in simple and complex biokinematic chains and by adding the variable of three-dimensional movement to the study of multilink chains. The book includes the three-dimensional analysis of 26 specific human joints, from the temporomandibular joint to the joints of the midfoot.

While the book is advanced and assumes a knowledge of calculus and matrix algebra, the emphasis is on explaining movement concepts, not mathematical formulae. The text features 23 refreshers of the basic concepts and many practical examples. The book is well illustrated and clearly written as the author skillfully integrates mechanical models with biological experiments.

The foremost biomechanist of the former Soviet Union, and a professor at The Pennsylvania State University since 1991, Vladimir Zatsiorsky shares his 35 years of research and teaching in biomechanics in what may well be the most important biomechanics book of the 1990s.