Do you want to know more about sports science, or how the human body works? What happen inside us during rest or activity?
Whether you are not a sports scientist or not seeking a career in sports, but you are training and want to understand more about the human body. Some (or well all of these books) dig deep inside of body, in the cellular level and if you are familiar with this kind of stuff, give it shot. You might learn new things and get new aspect of your training. Also, understanding even the basic mechanisms of the body will help you to read more critically all those “how to get fit”, “get sixpack in 5 weeks”, and other topics.
If you are a sports scientist or have studied these things these books might be quite familiar to you.
There are tons of books about this topic and some of these books talks the same topics, but again we all learn different ways and some books might help understand things more than others. I tried to pick here some books which are relatively easy to read and contains also pictures to clear everything, and those who learn by looking at things rather than only reading.
There won’t be any coaching, strength and conditioning, nutrition or training books as will post own list all of them.
Have you read sports science book(s), which you find interesting and want to share. Leave a comment below and let others know.
The book list:
- William D. McArdle, Frank I. Katch and Victor L. Katch – Exercise Physiology: nutrition, energy and human performance
I said I won’t list here any nutrition, etc. books, but it’s difficult to avoid them, as some books cover a few topics. I recommend to start from this book, it’s a fat and a pricy but if you can found it somewhere give it go. It covers almost all topics that sports science includes, it’s easy to read and include basics, so it’s good for the beginner. I would say this book is the bible of sports.
- W. Larry Kenney, Jack Wilmore and David Costill – Physiology of sport and exercise
Again cover a little bit every topic, and the same topics as McArdle’s book, but a different appearance. The focus is human body function before it examines performance, environmental influence and ageing.
- Tim Lee and Richard Schmidt – Motor learning and performance
All about motor learning, performance, skills and development. The book contains testing and equations, which not might consider you, but otherwise, I definitely recommended give a look as two previous books focus more on what happens inside us, this book gives another perspective.
- Gordon Robertson, Graham Caldwell, Joseph Hamill, Gary Kamen nad Saunders Whittlesey – Research methods in biomechanics
If equations, kinematics, joint angles, force, energy and all that kind of stuff is in area of your interest, this is good for you.
- Roger Bartlerr – Introduction to sports biomechanics: Analysing human movement patterns
Biomechanics book, which starts about basic and going in the deeper. For those who are interested in biomechanics and human movement, this is a good start.
- Clare E. Milner – Functional Anatomy for Sport and Exercise: Quick reference
Okay, there are tons of anatomy book, some of them are simple and some are used of doctors, this is somewhere in between. I can’t really recommend enough to learn anatomy, at least the basics. Knowing at least basic about anatomy, help you to understand what muscles working while you training or experiencing pain or other feelings.