On Chinese Medicine and our walking motion.

Abnormally, I woke up at 1030 am today. I have broken my house rule that I need to be fully awake by 0930 but no one is to bother; I am staying in a hostel now. That's freedom. That's independent. Although there are much more cons than pros, I am not going to think of it, at least for now.

Yesterday classes were interesting and that's the main reason I am posting my lesson contents onto my blog for the first time. In the morning, we did BODY IN MOTION where we learnt about our walking pattern and gait. Basically, we looked at our walking style both quantitatively and qualitatively.

The following contains the elements for a smooth walking.

1) Pelvic Rotation
2) Pelvic list
3) Knee Flexion (bending need backwards) in stance phase (duration when leg is on the floor)
4) Presence of foot/ mobile forefoot (this is important as one would find many of us on planet aren't born with a perfect leg)
5) Co-ordinated movement through co-ordinated muscle actions. (involving dynamic balance)
6) Lateral displacement of your body.

Later during our lab section , we used the VICON machine to measure the sagittal plane movements of the knee and ankle. It basically uses the opto- electronic method where infrared light is emitted from 6 cameras around the laboratory, allowing the reflection from reflective markers to be capture by the cameras. It's similar to those where one uses to generate fiction characters in movies. Real Cool.

The VIVON system.

Graphics we saw on the computer screen.


Next, we tried on the accelerometers and electric goniometers. It was real fun indeed, but when it comes to interprating the graph, it can be a real disaster. I loved it though.


In the afternoon was traditional chinese medicine, we touched on 陰陽五行學說
which touched on the dark and good side of a force and how the land, water, wood, gold, fire comes into play in TCM! Some attention-grabbing parts from the lecture.

五行的特性
木的特性“曲直”；引伸為具有能曲能伸、舒展、升發等性質和現象。
火的特性“炎上”；引伸為具有溫熱、升騰、明亮等性質和現象。
土的特性“稼穡”；引伸為具有受納、承載、生化等性質和現象。
金的特性“從革”；引伸為具有肅殺、收歛、發聲等性質和現象。
水的特性“潤下”；引伸為具有滋潤、向下、寒涼、閉藏等性質和現象。


生命活動的基本物質
In biology, there are only 3 basic needs, yet in TCM, there are 5.
主要包括精、氣、血和津液。精，是指體內的精微物質；氣，是指極精細而活力很強的一類物質；血，是紅色的液態物質；津液，是體內的正常水液。

The most interesting of the 5 is 氣, it is differentiated into in-born 氣 (元氣) and nutured 氣 (宗氣,營氣,衛氣).


That's the end for now.
I am going to prepare for my Anatomy as I'll be going to open lab tonight to explore on the different nerves and arteries on the cadavers. I have conquer all the muscles on the thight and butt. By next week, I would need to know everything on the knee, leg and foot. Jia you!

Cadaver's lab is opened from 0630pm to 0930pm 3 times a week at our Y block. See us there. ^^