Fundamentals of Anatomy, Physiology and Kinesiology in Sports
Domain focus
This domain combines anatomy, physiology and kinesiology: bones, joints, muscles, heart and lungs, and the mechanical terms that describe movement. Expect plane-and-axis and lever questions.
Core concepts
- Skeleton: 206 bones in an adult; axial skeleton 80 (skull, vertebral column, rib cage), appendicular 126 (limbs and girdles).
- Joints: fibrous, cartilaginous, synovial; synovial types include hinge (elbow), ball-and-socket (shoulder, hip), pivot (atlas-axis), saddle (thumb).
- Muscles: skeletal, smooth, cardiac; skeletal muscle works in pairs - agonist, antagonist, synergist, fixator.
- Physiology: heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, VO2 max; breathing and gas exchange; blood transport.
- Kinesiology terms: flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, rotation, circumduction, inversion/eversion.
- Planes and axes: sagittal plane with frontal axis; frontal plane with sagittal axis; transverse plane with vertical axis.
Worked example
A biceps curl: the forearm moves toward the upper arm at the elbow. This is flexion in the sagittal plane about a frontal (coronal) axis. The elbow acts as a third-class lever: effort (biceps) between fulcrum (elbow joint) and load (hand weight). Reasoning: name the joint action, then the plane, then the axis, then the lever class.
Traps
- Mixing planes and axes.
- Saying adults have 300 bones; that is the newborn count.
- Labelling the biceps as the antagonist during a curl.
- Calling the elbow a ball-and-socket joint.