Exercise Science and Anatomy
What the Exercise Science and Anatomy domain tests
This domain checks the vocabulary behind your instruction: joint actions, muscle roles, planes of motion, cardiorespiratory intensity, and basic training variables. Items often ask you to identify the muscle working, the plane of movement, or the correct intensity range.
Core rules
- Muscle actions: concentric (shortening), eccentric (lengthening under load), isometric (no change in length). Eccentric actions control lowering and are linked to soreness.
- Planes: sagittal (flexion/extension, walking, biceps curl); frontal (abduction/adduction, side steps); transverse (rotation, horizontal adduction).
- Agonist produces the action; antagonist opposes it; stabilizers fix a joint; synergists assist.
- ACSM moderate cardio is 64–76% of estimated HRmax and 12–13 on the 6–20 RPE scale; vigorous is 77–95% and 14–17.
- HRmax is estimated as 220 − age, but it is a population average with large individual error.
Worked example
A 40-year-old participant wants a moderate-intensity target zone. Estimated HRmax = 220 − 40 = 180 bpm. Moderate lower bound = 180 × 0.64 = 115 bpm; upper = 180 × 0.76 = 137 bpm. So the zone is about 115–137 bpm. Show reasoning, then confirm with the talk test: moderate work allows short sentences but not singing.
Traps
- Calling a lowering phase “concentric” because the weight is moving.
- Treating 220 − age as a measured maximum rather than an estimate.
- Mixing up frontal-plane abduction with sagittal-plane flexion.
- Prescribing exact heart-rate zones without considering medications or individual variation.