Anatomy & Physiology
The organizing framework
Anatomy is structure; physiology is function. Questions often begin at the levels of organization: chemical → cell → tissue → organ → organ system → organism. There are four tissue types - epithelial, connective, muscle, nervous - and connective tissue is the most abundant and varied (bone, blood, fascia, adipose, cartilage).
Reference points you must own
Anatomical position is standing, face forward, palms forward, feet flat. All directional terms describe the client's body, not your own: the client's left shoulder is on your right when you face them. Homeostasis - the body's drive to hold internal conditions steady - is the concept underlying why massage affects circulation, nervous tone, and pain perception.
Systems weighted heavily on the exam
- Skeletal: 206 bones; axial (skull, vertebral column, rib cage) versus appendicular (limbs and girdles).
- Muscular: skeletal (voluntary, striated), cardiac (involuntary, striated), smooth (involuntary, non-striated).
- Nervous: CNS (brain and spinal cord) versus PNS; somatic versus autonomic; sympathetic (fight-or-flight) versus parasympathetic (rest-and-digest).
- Lymphatic: no central pump - lymph moves via muscle contraction, breathing, and vessel contraction, always toward the heart.
- Endocrine: hormonal responses are slower and longer-lasting than nerve impulses.
Traps
Afferent versus efferent, proximal versus distal, and lung lobes (right = three, left = two) appear constantly. Also know heart valves: tricuspid and pulmonary on the right, mitral (bicuspid) and aortic on the left.
Rule of thumb
Afferent Arrives (sensory toward the CNS); Efferent Exits (motor away from the CNS).