Recent fall

Recently while taking an early morning bike ride I took a nasty fall, and I feel if it weren't for my understanding of Biomechanical principles and varied experience in martial arts, I would have suffered serious injury. Although I live in Naples, FL, and the elevation is at almost sea level, I own a mountain bike secondary to its strong construction and its unique ability to go off road to avoid obstacles, traffic, and the resulting wheel damage that often happens  with the expensive racing bikes. I was coming up to an area that was under construction and was riding in loose dirt. As I was getting ready to unweight the front wheel and jump the curb, I noticed the exposed curb footing and was unable to lift the tire high enough to clear the curb and get on the sidewalk. My tire hit the upper portion of the curb quickly jerking the steering wheel to the right and pitching me to the left and over the handlebars. I immediately tucked my left shoulder and rolled with the fall and quickly found myself back on my feet. I had practiced this same fall many times when studying Judo other martial arts forms. So if this was a knee-jerk-reaction from years of martial arts  training, then why do I state the principles of Biomechanics saved me? Because I was able to change my linear motion (motion in a straight line which probably would have resulted in some serious road-rash) into angular motion and redirect the force to a small portion of the back of my shoulder. If I had pitched forward onto my hands and face I probably would have sustained serious injury to my palms, forearms, elbows, chest, face, knees, etc. To apply these principles to strength training notice how an exercise machine (such as Cybex or Nautilus) changes the vertical direction of the weight stack into angular motion for the select joints and muscles of the body to provide safe, efficient motion reducing the "sticking point" that must be overcome with the lifting of free weights.