When learning about personal fitness and how we can better our fitness levels, it is important to actually know what are body is made of and how it works. The points that we will be covering in this unit are the bones and muscles in our body , as well as the different biomechanics and body types there are. This is also important for us to learn about because it can help us understand more about our bodies and help us become physically fit.
First we will start with the different types of bones in the body, there are 5 types of bones. There are flat bones which protect your internal organ, some examples of these bones are cranial bones or ribs. The next type of bone, are short bones they are usually cubed shaped bones, examples of these bones are metatarsals and metacarpals. There are also another type of bone called long bones these help to support weight and facilitate movement, examples of these bones are humerus and femurs. Another type of bone is sesamoid bones they help to reinforce tendons an example is the patella. The final type of bones are irregular bones they have complex shapes, an example of these bones are vertebrate. In total you have 206 bones in your body, however when you were first born you actually 270 bones. When you begin to age some the bones will fuse together, an example of this is some of the bones in the skull. It is important that we try to keep our bones strong so we can prevent breaking our bodies. We can do this by having important nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D.
The next topic is the muscles in the body, we have three different groups of muscle in the body. They are skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscles. The skeletal muscles help to move bones and other structures, examples of these muscles could be the biceps or triceps. As well for skeletal muscles there are type 1 and type 2 muscles, type 1 muscles are fast twitch muscles they are used in short burst like sprinting or a bench press. Type 2 muscles are slow twitch muscles they are used for things such as running a long distance. Cardiac muscles help to pump blood into the heart, these muscles are found in the found. Smooth muscles are found in hollow organs such as the stomach. Another thing that is important about muscles is learning about how we build muscles, this is because if you are starting to go to the gym it helps to know what you need to do to build your muscles. We build muscles through progressive overload and rest. This can be done through working out by lifting weights, running or just increase the stress we put our muscles through by a small increase. It is important that after you put stress on the muscles you give them time to recover, this is why you do not work out every day and it is important that you take rest days.
The final thing that we will be learning about is the different body types and how this effects the biomechanics of our body. There are three different body types which are ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph. Ectomorphs are leaner and struggle to build muscle. Mesomorph are more athletically built, have higher metabolism and find it very easy to build muscle. Endomorphs have a higher tendency to store body fat and find it hard to lose weight. Our body types play a big role in what our own personal fitness looks like, it can easy for some people to build muscle and get a six pack while eating MacDonald's. While some people try to eat very healthy but can't lose weight or put muscle on.
Another thing that can impact our personal fitness, is our different biomechanics. Due to our biomechanics it can make it more difficult for certain people to do different exercises. For example due to hip joints it can make it harder for you to do certain exercises such as squats or deadlifts.