The Body in Motion: Its Evolution and Design

by Theodore Dimon Jr.

An anatomical exploration of the human body, accessibly written with 162 full-color illustrations for physical therapists, dancers, yoga teachers, and students

This comprehensive guide demonstrates the functions and evolution of specific body systems, explaining how they cooperate to form an upright, intelligent, tool-making marvel, capable of great technological and artistic achievement.

Enhanced with 162 beautifully rendered full-color illustrations, the book opens with an introduction to the origins of movement and a journey through time and evolution—from fish to amphibian, quadruped to primate—showing how humans became the preeminent moving beings on the planet. Further examining our upright support system, the book describes the purpose
 
• The extensors, flexors, and spine
• The importance of the shoulder girdle as a support structure for the arm
• The hands and upper limbs
• The pelvic girdle
• The feet and lower limbs
• Breathing
• The larynx and throat musculature
• The spiral musculature of the trunk
 
It is our upright posture that makes it possible for us to move in an infinite variety of ways, to manipulate objects, to form speech, and to perform the complex rotational movements that underlie many of our most sophisticated skills. These systems, Dimon argues persuasively, have helped us build, invent, create art, explore the world, and imbue life with a contemplative, spiritual dimension that would otherwise not exist.

Genres: Art, Health, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2011

About the author

Theodore Dimon Jr. received both masters and doctorate degrees in education from Harvard University and is an internationally renowned teacher of mind/body disciplines. He has written five books including Anatomy of the Moving Body; The Body in Motion; Your Body, Your Voice; The Elements of Skill; and The Undivided Self. He lectures internationally and teaches at The Dimon Institute and Columbia Teachers College.

Reviews

[Emanuela Kozhleeva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Text, text, text, the MIRACLE that is the human body, text, text, text, the MARVELOUS INSTRUMENT that is our body, text, text, text. Cool illustrations though. *bonks self on head with a pan*

[Leena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book via the Alexander Technique. I (as someone who has been meeting weekly with a coach for ~3 months) picked it up because I have really been enjoying learning how everything is put together during my lessons. I had some misconceptions for sure! I found this book to be a quick, but comprehensive, read. It doesn't mention the Alexander Technique, so if you have no idea what that's about, no worries. I enjoyed the evolutionary take and the easy-to-understand language. The illustrations were well-done and aided my understanding.

[Woody Hayday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated, well explained short book, explaining the evolutionary track of skeletal musculature which resulted in our bodily design.

Wordy, with small font, but very refined and well edited. You get the sense of efficacy throughout, which is welcome in a world of much talk and little facts. A great book for all humans, and very useful if studying Alexander Technique.


Woody Hayday

[Claire Rechnitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Body in Motion, Theodore Dimon details the logic and advantage of our unique, upright form. Borrowing terms from structural engineering such as guy-wires, scaffolding, struts and trusses, yard-arms, vaulted arches and keystones, he explains how the various bones and muscles evolved to bear weight and support upright posture. Imagery from mechanical engineering such as hinges, levers, sockets and rockers help to demonstrate how we propel ourselves, balance, breath, vocalize, and manipulate objects. The text is accompanied by two types of illustrations; anatomically correct representations that show the position and articulation of various parts, and mechanical models that show how the parts operate and move.
Dimon begins by describing the origins of movement, explaining how elemental life forms developed simple muscles and spines which helped them pursue food by enabling lateral flexion from the head down. Later species developed ribs, limbs, shoulder girdles, pelvic bowls and the corresponding joints and muscles, enabling refined and deliberate movement. Dimon highlights the consequential relationship between form and function, showing how size, shape, orientation and flexibility of various parts changed as different animals evolved. He compares our vertical form to fish, amphibians and reptiles, four-legged mammals and semi-erect mammals, explaining that rather than being built from the ground up, our erect stature is the result of a gradual up-righting of the original swing-from-the-head construct. Consequently, we are structurally suspended from above, namely, from the base of the skull, with extension and expansion happening from the head down. Ultimately, Dimon explains why and how the relationship of the head to the trunk (in any vertebrate) is the primary organizing principle governing support and movement and how “when properly poised” the human body “seems to spring upward effortlessly against gravity, maintaining its upward thrust because muscles supporting the head and trunk from below are also being lengthened from above.”
The first eight chapters focus on the purpose and functionality of the basic musculoskeletal system, showing how each part works individually while contributing to sustaining upright posture. It is particularly helpful that each muscle layer is clearly described in relation to its connection (directly or indirectly) to the head. Subsequent chapters explain how breathing, the voice and throat and the spiral musculature both facilitate and are facilitated by our upright design.
Without mentioning the Alexander Technique, Dimon demonstrates that good design, really good design, affords the potential for good use, and that good use is vital to preservation of the mechanism and to its optimal performance. He also writes that our “capacity for autonomy and choice is directly related to our upright design.” Uniquely human advantages such as opposable thumbs, a striding gait and vertical rotation are directly related to this most sophisticated of designs, influencing our powers of reflection and contemplation, expression, communication and exploitation
Beyond naming and mapping body parts, this book delves deeply into an understanding of how our tremendous range of movement is possible and how it serves our most human qualities of mind and spirit. Dimon ends with a call to “celebrate this physical form…and sing praise to its beauty”. His book does just that, loud and clear.
The Body in Motion: Its Evolution and Design

[Michael Blackmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a good supplement to other anatomy books if you are studying things. Rather than just try to ID the relevant bones and muscles, it attempts to put them in context and how they developed to function in us versus how they do in other species.

At the very least you'll never take walking upright for granted, as you begin to realize how much of structural anatomy is to accommodate it!

Definitely recommended. Probably best paired with a regular anatomy book if you're studying such things or read after studying to help build the context for things a bit.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book to wet your appetite for anatomy and physiologist. He makes a good case that the body is quite strong and capable for certain kinds of activities, but knowing knowing the ways in which it is strong may help people to use their bodies in more appropriate ways. I do think his theories went a little bit over board at the end, but all in all an interesting read which made me want to learn more.

[Bob]

A function-based guide to human anatomy, designed to show the "why" behind the "what." Well illustrated with clear explanations.