Physical stresses may bring us unhappy experiences, pain and sourness, even worse, the fracture of bones. Tennis elbow is not a syndrome appearing among tennis players. I believe most of us have this kind unpleasant experience occasionally. Pain or sourness accompanies laterally after over-using our muscle in the same region, waking up with a sour arm after overusing the computer last night, for instance. Surveying some papers I find doctors use MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to observe how stresses build up in the pain region and how severe stresses induce fracture.

If you prefer to learn tensors in solid mechanics, Nye's book is recommended.
The author covers most of the physical properties in various crystal structures. Some handy tables are included in the book. However, he uses ONLY tensors to derive the properties. If you prefer to write down equations one by one, this would not be a suitable book to start.
Timoshenko's book is also recommended too. As a beginner, this book explains not only the problem, also the meaning behind it. It clearly describes the fundamental questions.
Some books

Hi everyone, I am Roxanne, a G-2 student in applied physics.  My major was chemical engineering when I was an undergraduate student in Taiwan.  I had no background on mechanics then.  When I was a G-1, I took AP 293 (Deformation of Solids).  This course gave me some ideas on the plastic flow, elastic properties, and dislocations of materials. Math, like partial differential equation and tensors are pretty challenging to me…always.

Currently, I am working with Frans, and my research focus is on studying the creep phenomena in metals.

http://deas.harvard.edu/matsci/