NSCA CSCS Scientific Foundations (Exercise Science) Part 1 Flashcards

What are the three interwoven systems that allow our bodies to move?

Skeletal, Nervous, and Muscular

What are the five major roles of the skeletal system?

Movement (levers & joints)

Support (framework)

Protection

Blood Production

Mineral Storage (calcium and phosphorus)

How many bones are in the Axial system? What nervous systems does it correlate with?

skull, sternum, rib cage, and verte column (80 bones)

Central Nervous System

How many bones are in the Appendicular System? What nervous system does this correlate with?

Upper and Lower Extremities, shoulder and pelvic girdle

126 bones and correlates with the Peripheral Nervous System

What are the five categories of bones in the human body?

Long bones, Short bones, Flat bones, irregular bones, and sesamoid bones.

What are examples of long bones in the body?

Humerus and Femur

What is the end of the long bone and the primary site for bone growth and red blood cell production?

Epiphysis (E for end of bone)

What is the shaft portion of the long bone, and is mainly comprised of compact bone?

Diaphysis

What connects the two portions of the bone, and where growth takes place?

Epiphyseal plates

Bones are ___ ___ in the body that ___ & ____ ____ with weigth bearing exercise.

Living tissue adapts and becomes stronger

What does weight-bearing exercise do to the bones in the body?

Increase bone density, mass, and strength

What population especially needs to do strength training?

Older populations (everyone, but especially them)

When does our bone mass peak?

around age 35

Who has a higher risk of hip fracture and why?

Older individuals, because bones tend to weaken with age

What is the term for bones weakening over time? Seen in older populations

osteoporosis

What are the exercises to prevent falls in older populations?

Leg strength, balance, and bone density

What consists of a series of irregularly shaped bones? What are these bones called?

spine and vertebrae

How many vertebrae are in each section of the spine?

7 Cervical

12 Thoracic

5 Lumbar

(breakfast at 7, lunch at 12, dinner at 5)

What is the optimal arrangement of the curves of the spine called, and why?

Neutral spine and it is a position of good posture, and where the vertebrae & associated structures are under the least amount of pressure.

What is Kyphosis?

Primary curves (thoracic/sacral) rounding forward

What is Lordosis?

Secondary curves (cervical/lumbar) rounding backwards

What are hyperkyphosis and hyperlordosis?

Deviations of the spine in the sagittal plane

What is scoliosis?

Lateral deviations of the spine in the frontal plane

What are the sites in the body where movement occurs as a result of a muscle's contraction?

joint

Joints form junctions between bones that are connected by what?

muscles and connective tissue

What are the three main types of joints?

fibrous, cartilaginous, synovial

What two joints are held together by connective tissue and allow little or no movement?

Fibrous and Cartilaginous Non-synovial Joints

What joints are held together by a joint capsule and ligaments, and are most associated with movement in the body?

Synovial joints

What are the four general movements that occur in synovial joints?

Gliding, Angular, Circumduction, and rotation

What are the types of synovial joints?

Hinge, Gliding, Condyloid, saddle, pivot, and ball-and-socket

What are examples of hinge joints?

Ankle and Elbow joints

What are examples of a ball-and-socket joint?

Shoulder and hip joints

What is the motion of joints in the body called? What are the three major motions?

Arthrokinematics (Roll, Slide, Spin)

What is Arthrokinematic Dysfunction?

It is caused by altered length-tension relationships and force-couple relationships that affect the joints and lead to abnormal joint movement and proprioception, causing poor efficiency.

What connective tissue connects muscle to bone?

tendon

What connective tissue connects bone to bone?

ligaments

What is a band or sheet of connective tissue underneath the skin that attaches, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs?

Fasciae

What is the downfall of tendons and ligaments?

They have a lower blood supply, so they are slower to heal from injury and take longer to adapt to exercise-induced stresses.

What is the most abundant protein in the body, and what do they do?

Collagen: The collagen fibers provide stability and structure due to their tensile strength and inextensibility properties.

They control and limit the excessive movement of our joints through connective tissue.

What protein is highly elastic and present in connective tissue, allowing many tissues in the body to resume their shape after stretching and contracting?

Elastin

What can always be found together in the body that work together to support and facilitate joint movement?

Elastic and Collagen fibers

What is the software/conductor, and what is the hardware/orchestra?

The nervous system and the muscles

What are the three primary functions of the nervous system?

sensory (input), integrative (analyzes input), and motor function (response)

What function gives the nervous system the ability to sense changes in either our internal or external environment?

Sensory function

What function gives the nervous system the ability to analyze and interpret sensory info to allow for proper decision-making, which produces the appropriate response?

Integrative Function

What function gives the nervous system the ability to respond to sensory info?

Motor Function

What neurons respond to touch, sounds, light, and other stimuli and transmit this info back to the brain?

Sensory (afferent neurons)

What neurons send the signal back from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles?

Motor (Efferent neurons)

What is the communication link between the nervous system and the muscular system? What does it do?

Neural activation: It describes the contraction of a muscle generated by neural stimulation.

Where does neural activation take place? Why here?

motor unit; this is where the motor neuron meets the muscular fibers it activates.

What is the functional unit of the nervous system? What can it do?

A neuron processes and transmits info through both chemical and electrical signals.

What are chemical messengers that cross the neuromuscular junction (synapse) to transmit electrical impulses from the nerve to the muscle?

Neurotransmitters

What is the response to stimuli that activate the movement in organs or muscles?

Motor output

What is motor control?

How the central nervous system integrates internal and external sensory info with previous experiences to produce a motor response.

What is the change in motor skill behavior over time throughout the lifespan?

Motor Development

What is the motor response to internal and external environmental stimuli?

It is the collective study of motor control, motor learning, and motor development.

Motor behavior

What acts at the neuromuscular junction to excite the muscle fibers of a motor unit?

Acetylcholine

What division of the nervous system is comprised of the brain and spinal cord?

The central nervous system's primary function is to coordinate the activity of all parts of the body.

What division of the nervous system serves to connect the CNS to limbs and organs as a communication relay?

Peripheal Nervous System

What are the two subdivisions of the PNS? What do they do?

Somatic nervous system; responsible for voluntary muscle contraction or movement.

Autonomic nervous system; responsible for the control of the body functions not consciously directed.

What are the two divisions of the ANS?

Sympathetic Nervous System: fight or flight

Parasympathetic Nervous System: Rest and digest

What can breathing do for the parasympathetic state?

We can use it to regulate our nervous system's response to stressors. By slow controlled breaths through our nose and longer exhales to downregulate towards a more parasympathetic state.

What is another form of breathing technique that can be used to increase alertness for competition and lean into more of a sympathetic state?

Longer inhale, shorter exhale

What is the best place to be on the Arousal Continuum?

In the middle of the parasympathetic and sympathetic.

We want to be alert enough to perform but calm enough to focus.

What is a great indicator of our autonomic nervous system health?

Heart Rate Variability. Higher HRV is a sign that our nervous system is balanced.

Who came up with the Physiological sigh?

Dr. Andrew Huberman

What is proprioception?

Awareness: our CNS's ability to talk to our muscles and understand where the body is in relation to its various segments and the external environment.

What do we need in order to have good proprioception?

optimal length-tension, force-couple relationships, and joint function

What can alter balance and cause neuromuscular inefficiency? Why is this bad?

Kinetic Chain imbalances or injuries

They inhibit our ability to activate and control our muscles synergistically. They alter movement patterns and the firing order of muscles.

What receptors are located within joints, muscles, and tendons that provide the CNS with info needed to maintain muscle tone and perform complex coordinated movements?

Proprioceptors

What are sensory receptors responsible for sensing pressure and distortion in the body tissues?

Mechanoreceptors

What are the first 6 steps to muscle contraction?

1. The muscle cell is activated

2. Calcium is released from the SR into the sarcoplasm

3. Calcium binds to troponin

4. Troponin shifts its position and pulls tropomyosin away from the active sites on actin

5. The active sites are exposed

6. ATP binds to myosin and is hydrolyzed by ATPase, thereby releasing energy. This process activates the myosin head and cocks it into a high-energy, extended position.

What are the last steps to muscle contraction?

1. The head of the myosin binds to an exposed active site on actin, generating a cross-bridge between actin and myosin.

2. The power stroke is performed

3. A new ATP binds to the emptied ATP-binding site on the myosin head, causing a release of the myosin and actin bond.

4. The last four steps are repeated if the muscle fiber remains active.

5. The cell is no longer activated, and everything returns to a resting state.

During a concentric muscle action, what happens to the sarcomere?

Distance between the z-line, distance between the z-line and m-line, length of the I-band, and length of the H-zone decrease.

Length of the A-band stays the same

During an eccentric muscle action, what happens to the sarcomere?

Distance between the z-line, distance between the z-line and m-line, length of the I-band, and length of the H-zone increase

Length of the A-band stays the same.

During an isometric contraction, what happens to the sarcomere?

There are no changes

What factors contribute to force production?

Agonist, antagonist, and synergist activation

Reflex involvement

Length of the muscle

Size of the muscle

Type of fiber recruited

Speed of contraction

Angle of pennation of the activated muscle.

What is a motor unit?

A motor neuron and all of the muscle fibers it innervates

What dictates the force production of a muscle?

The amount of actin and myosin crossbridges formed within the muscle fibers of a given muscle.

How can Athletes improve force production?

Incorporate phases of training that use heavier loads in order to optimize motor unit recruitment and firing frequency patterns.

Incorporate phases of training that promote skeletal hypertrophy

Implement training methods that specifically target movements where increases in force are desired.

What is a muscle spindle?

A muscle spindle provides info concerning muscle length and the rate of change in length.

Will increase agonist motor unit activation to prevent falling or collaspe.

What is the Golgi tendon organ? (GTO)

Proprioceptors located in tendons near the myotendinous junction and are in series with extrafusal muscle fibers. The GTO is activated when the tendon attached to an active muscle is stretched.

This will decrease agonist activation to prevent tearing of tissue

What is the force-length relationship?

The optimal length and angle are different for each part of the body; however, most muscles can produce the largest amount of force at the midpoint.

This allows a larger number of cross-bridges to form. This maximises how much actin and myosin overlap and therefore more cross-bridges. If muscles are longer than optimal length, then not as many cross-bridges can be formed = less tension/force. If muscles are shorter than optimal length, not as much room for sarcomeres to contract.

What is hypertrophy?

Increase in muscle size

More contractile protein, more actin and myosin, and more force produced by the entire muscle

What is hyperplasia?

Increase in the number of muscle cells

More contractile protein, more actin and myosin, and more force produced by the entire muscle

What is the skeletal muscle pump? Why is it important?

is the assistance that contracting muscles provide to the circulatory system. The muscle pump works with the venous system to return blood to the heart.

This is why it is important to periodically contract the leg muscles or take walking breaks from sitting to prevent blood from pooling in the legs.

What is the purpose of the cardiovascular system?

Transport nutrients and remove waste products while helping maintain the environment for all the body's functions.

Blood transports oxygen from the lungs to tissues for cellular metabolism and carries carbon dioxide to the lungs for removal.

What is the primary function of the respiratory system?

is the basic exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

How important is it to train the muscles of respiration?

Regular exercise is beneficial for maintaining respiratory muscle function. This will help preserve pulmonary function with aging.

What are the muscles for inspiration?

external intercostals, sternocleidomastoids, anterior serrati, scaleni.

What are the muscles for expiration?

internal intercostals and abdominal muscles

What is cardiac output, and what is the formula?

is the amount of blood pumped by the heart in liters per minute.

Q=Stroke volume x heart rate

What is the resting cardiac output average?

5 L/min

How much can cardiac output increase during exercise?

(4 times more) 20 to 22 L/min

How does stroke volume change during exercise?

Will rise on the onset of exercise and climb until a person reaches 40-50% of maximal oxygen uptake.

What is End-diastolic volume?

The volume of blood available to be pumped by the left ventricle at the end of the filling phase, or diastole

What is the ejection fraction?

The fraction of end-diastolic volume that is ejected from the heart.

What is the formula to estimate a maximal heart rate?

220-age

What is the average resting oxygen uptake for a person?

3.5mL of oxygen per kilogram of body weight

1 metabolic equivalent

What is the range for maximum oxygen uptake?

25-80 mLxkgxmin or 7.1-22.9 METs