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Training Room 2

1. Training Room 2

1.5. Page 6

HSS1010: Health Services Foundations

Training Room 2: Inside Out—How the Body Works

 

Why Is Movement Important?

 

You’ve heard the message that movement is important for your health, but the message isn’t just about exercise. Human bodies need to move to live.

  • This is an animation of a girl tossing a ball with a lacrosse stick.
    © 2012 Jupiterimages Corporation
    Movement of the skeletal muscles causes corresponding movement in internal organs, which helps the organs perform their functions.
  • Movement of muscles exerts force on bones, which causes the bones to produce important minerals, such as calcium, to help keep bones strong.
  • Lack of movement in bedridden patients can cause muscles to shrink. It can also cause bedsores due to lack of blood circulation.
  • Muscles play an important role in maintaining body temperature by creating heat.
  • The human body actually craves movement in order to aid processes such as immunity, digestion, circulation, detoxification, hormone regulation, pregnancy, and metabolism. 

How the Human Body Works to Create Movement

 

Muscular System

 

Watch “Muscular and Skeletal Systems” to learn about the human muscular system. Advance the timeline slider to the 12:00-minute mark of the video clip and watch from there to the end of the video.

 

 

This is a play button that opens Muscles and Skeletal Systems.


To find out more, search the Internet using the term “how muscles work.”

 

The muscular system refers to skeletal muscle tissue and the connective tissues that make up individual muscles, such as the biceps. Cardiac muscle in the heart is part of the circulatory system, and smooth muscle in the digestive tract is part of the digestive system.

 

Skeletal muscle creates movement by exerting force on tendons, which then pull on bones. Skeletal muscles can only pull on bones; they cannot push. Skeletal muscles usually occur in the body in pairs. When one muscle in the pair contracts, or shortens, it pulls on the bone, creating movement. The opposite movement is created when the opposing muscle contracts.

 

For example, when the biceps contract, they curl the arm by pulling the forearm toward the shoulder. When the triceps contract, they straighten the arm by pulling the forearm down.

 

This diagram shows the bicep contracting to bend the forearm.
 
This diagram shows the tricep contracting to straighten the forearm.

 

 

 


Movement, of course, is much more complex. Have you heard the saying “It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile”? Do you believe the statement? Answers to this puzzle vary. Exactly how many muscles does it take to frown versus to smile?

 

A stylized figure of a person holding a frowning mask in front of the face

Hemera/Thinkstock



Search the Internet for “how many muscles does it take to smile.” Surprised?