Basic Knowledge of Anatomy and Physiology for Bodybuilders

Anatomy and physiology are closely related concepts that are often studied together. In a few words, anatomy is a study of the physical structure of an organism, while physiology involves the study of the functions of individual structures and systems within an organism, as well as the function of an organism as a whole. An understanding of anatomy is critical to the study of physiology, and learning about physiology is important to people who want to understand how anatomical structures work.

Before you can effectively train your muscles, you need to know how they function so that you can select the exercises that will best stimulate them to grow. Let’s first examine a few of the body’s basic structures and see how they work together, and how this knowledge will lead to your becoming a more informed and more successful bodybuilder.

Central nervous system

The central nervous system is of vital importance to both the aspiring and competitive bodybuilder (as it is to the rest of our species and any other species). Without nerves, our bones wouldn’t move, because our muscles wouldn’t contract. The central nervous system consists of the spinal cord and the brain; it functions in conjunction with the peripheral nervous system, which comprises the ganglia and nerves that reside outside of the brain and spinal cord. The nervous system appears like thousands of little wires that function as transmitters, receivers, and interpreters of data from all parts of the body. It is responsible for stimulating the muscles of the body to contract, which in turn make it possible to move. Damage to the central nervous system, obviously would impair the body’s movement potential. Movement itself is accomplished when the nervous system stimulates the muscles, which then move the bones that support us via the tendinous attachments around our joints, which are connected by ligaments.

Ligaments

Ligaments are fibrous bands that bind bone to bone. Their compactness determines to a large extent the flexibility of our joints. Great caution must be taken when you’re training because if a ligament is stretched too far, the joint that it holds together will become loose, resulting in permanent damage to the tissue. (This is why some football players are never able to fully recover from serious knee injuries.) A joint that has been thusly injured will often “go out” without warning, due to the instability of its overstretched ligaments.

Tendons

Tendons are the dense, fibrous bands at the end of muscles. Their function is to attach muscles to bones. Within the tendons are found the golgi tendon organs, whose function is to send signals to the brain to indicate stress and fatigue. Generally the ache that you experience during strenuous exercise is being transmitted via the tendon and not the muscle.

Bones

The human body contains 206 bones that, collectively compose the skeleton. Muscles, as we have seen, are attached to bones by tendons and assist us in moving from one position to another.

Muscles

There exist three distinct kinds of muscle tissue within the body: cardiac, skeletal, and smooth. Cardiac muscle is the heart, while smooth muscle assists organs such as the stomach and intestines in the passage and digestion of food. Skeletal muscle, on the other hand, is responsible for moving our bones. As we’re looking to increase the size and strength of our skeletal muscles, it is to this group that we shall devote most of our attention. There are more than six hundred skeletal muscles, which yields a skeletal-muscle-to-bones ratio of almost three to one and accounts for our highly evolved dexterity and precision in movement.

In summary, nerves stimulate our muscles, which in turn move our bones via the tendinous attachments near joints, which are connected by ligaments. When functioning with its parts in proper unison, the body is an intricate and complex piece of machinery. Our objective as bodybuilders will be to increase the efficiency of our “machine” through regulated periods of stress, or tension, upon the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in order to have the central nervous system transmit the signal for “overcompensation,” or muscle growth.