Anatomy, Physiology and Exercise Physiology
AHSEC anatomy and physiology questions test structure-function links and basic exercise responses: bones and joints, muscle types, heart and lungs, energy systems, and acute versus chronic training effects.
Core ideas
- Adult skeleton: 206 bones; axial (skull, vertebral column, rib cage) and appendicular (limbs, girdles).
- Joint types: fibrous (immovable), cartilaginous (slightly movable), synovial (freely movable). Synovial examples: hinge (elbow), ball-and-socket (shoulder, hip), pivot (atlas-axis), gliding (carpals), saddle (thumb carpometacarpal).
- Muscle tissue: skeletal (striated, voluntary), smooth (involuntary, organs), cardiac (striated, involuntary, intercalated discs).
- Cardiac output (Q) = heart rate (HR) × stroke volume (SV). At rest about 5 L/min; it rises in exercise.
- Energy systems: ATP-PC (short, explosive), anaerobic glycolysis (lactate), aerobic (with oxygen, long duration).
- Vital capacity is the maximum air exhaled after maximum inhalation; it is not total lung capacity.
Worked example
An athlete has HR 150 beats/min and SV 80 mL/beat. Q = 150 × 80 = 12,000 mL/min = 12 L/min. Reasoning: convert millilitres to litres by dividing by 1000; state the unit. If the same athlete reaches Q 20 L/min at HR 180, SV must be about 111 mL/beat (20,000 ÷ 180).
Traps
Do not confuse stroke volume with cardiac output. Tendons attach muscle to bone; ligaments attach bone to bone. Lactic acid is not the sole cause of delayed-onset muscle soreness. Do not call vital capacity the total volume the lungs can hold.