sports science-muscle and bones

Sports Science Muscle and bone
The human body is built around a sturdy frame called the *skeleton*. The skeleton provides protection for vital organs, support and stability in movement. Muscles are attached to the skeleton and generate movement. Many levers exist within the skeletal structure. Nature has designed the human body for movement rather than maximizing force.
Muscles are organs that generate movement by simply contracting, shortening in length and relaxing. Consider the animation on the right. The bicep is a muscle that enables the forearm to move. As it decreases in length it pulls the forearm upwards towards the head. Muscles are attached to bones by strong fibrous connections called tendons. The critical role of tendons is to transmit forces, generated by muscles, to move joints.
Similar to a nylon rope, a tendon is made up of smaller, tough individual fibers known as collagen. The tendon is tough and flexible but not particularly elastic. If tendons were elastic, much of the muscular force, tendons are intended to carry, would be severely reduced before it had a chance to generate movement of the bone. The fibrous nature of the tendon is shown on the right.
At the point where a tendon attaches to the bone the tendon fibres pass through the surface of the bone and fuse with the substance of the bone .
Tendons, as well as ligaments, are poorly supplied with blood vessels relative to other parts of the body. This makes healing difficult and long term. The Achille's tendon, shown on the right, forms a strong connection between muscle and bone. This tendon transmits a great dal of force and in doing so is prone to tearing and rupturing. Like most material, when cold tendons are inflexible and easy to tear. Warm-up exercises are crucial in keeping the inelastic tendons flexible and less prone to tearing.
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