Your Body is like a corporate identity. It has several departments that must function together to achieve a desired result. In the case of a corporate identity, that result may be profit driven, or it may be a charitable body that is striving to achieve a certain goal. Or it may have any number of other desired results.
In the case of your body, there is less scope for variation, even given our own individuality. The first and foremost of course is basic survival. From this basic platform we all put our own spin on it and the desired result of a professional sports person will be very different to that of lets say a full time mum with three kids on her hands! The bottom line however is that our bodies different departments, or systems, are striving to maintain our living state.
No matter what your situation is, OR your desires are, your objective should be to have the different departments of your body working together and in harmony so that you have the best chance of “achieving the result” you desire.
Your body has 8 basic departments or as would be more appropriate to label them - systems;
- Skeletal
- Muscular
- Nervous
- Cardiovascular
- Respiratory
- Endocrine
- Digestive
- Urinary
The Skeletal System;
Your body has 206 bones (unless you are have an extra rib or something which is not that unusual). This bone structure known as your skeleton has 5 basic functions
- To protect your vital organs - Rib cage for your lungs and heart, skull for your brain.
- To provide the framework of your body.
- To facilitate the attachment of the muscles that create movement via the “lever” system created by the skeletal structure.
- A storage depot for calcium deposits
- Produces red and white blood cells as well as platelets.
The Muscular System;
Your body has over 620 muscles and is in charge of movement. Muscles generally have 4 basic functions;
- Agonists - the action that causes the movement, normally the contraction or shortening of a muscle.
- Antagonists - the muscle that is opposite to the agonist, and its function is to relax and lengthen to allow the movement to happen. The classic example of an agonist / antagonist relationship is the biceps and triceps. As the biceps muscles cause the action of bending your elbow, the triceps are relaxing to permit that action. The reverse applies when straightening the arm.
- Stabilizers or Fixators - these muscles help to stabilize the body creating a smooth movement. An example of this is when you are doing a pushup, the agonist and antagonist muscles are all around your shoulder and upper arm area. Your abdominals act as stabilizers as they prevent your body from sagging to the ground at your mid section.
- Neutralizers - Sometimes the action of your muscles will tend to cause two movements. If your biceps muscles are bending your elbow, then because they are also attached at your shoulder, this tends to want to also flex your shoulder joint. This is where Neutralizers step in neutralize that action. In this case the muscles at the back of your shoulder joint will perform this job.
Muscles can also be broadly referred to as slow twitch or fast twitch. Endurance athletes have a stronger presence of slow twitch muscle fibres and speed and power athletes have a higher percentage of fast twitch fibres. A normal mix is around 60% slow twitch and 40% fast.
The Nervous System:
There are two systems within one, the Central nervous system and the Peripheral nervous system.
Your Central nervous system is your brain and spinal cord. Your Peripheral nervous system is the vast network of nerves and neurons that permeate your muscles and organs.
Your nervous system communicates with your body via electrical impulses . Once again there are slow and fast twitch neurons that facilitate this function. A slow twitch neuron will talk to 10 to 15 of your muscle fibres and a fast twitch neuron to around 800!
Your nervous system is also a collector of information. Your eyes and ears obviously relay information to your brain for processing. Similarly your nervous system collects information from you muscles and organs, so that it may take appropriate action to prevent harm to your body.
The Cardiovascular System;
Your heart, blood and the vessels that carry your blood, arteries, veins and capillaries. The function of your Cardiovascular system is to move oxygen, carbon dioxide and waste products around your body.
The system works in conjunction with the lymphatic system to fight against infection and to maintain your pH level (the difference between acidic and alkaline) within normal limits.
Your heart pumps blood (from the left side) via your arteries to the areas of your body that are in need, there it will drop off its load of oxygen and collect carbon dioxide. Your blood is then returned to your heart (the right side) where it is then pumped to your lungs. Your lungs then diffuse the carbon dioxide (and exhale it), re load the blood with oxygen (from freshly inhaled air), and return it to the left side of your heart to be redistributed thought your body.
The Respiratory System;
Your lungs simply remove carbon dioxide from your blood and replace it with oxygen. They do this via are sacs in your lungs called Alveoli. You have around 300 million of these little suckers in your lungs, and they would cover around 50 to 70 square meters if flattened out.
Your carbon dioxide laden blood travels into your lungs and once it passes through the walls of the alveoli the carbon dioxide is removed and replaced with oxygen.
Your lungs have an amazing capacity, at rest you will inhale and exhale approximately 6 litres of air in a minute. For an elite athlete operating at maximum aerobic capacity that can increase to around 100 litres per minute!
The Endocrine System;
Your Endocrine system is in charge of hormone distribution, and it does this via your glands. Hormones like Testosterone which aids in muscle development, Estrogen for bone health and menstruation, Adrenalin which is also know as the fight or flight hormone, are some of the better known hormones.
The Digestive System;
Your digestive system controls processing of the food you eat. It must break it down store it and mobilize it for energy. Naturally it also helps in the process of getting rid of waste.
Your body requires energy to exist. Even as you lie at complete rest, you body is still at work pumping blood, breathing, repairing damage and processing food. All of those functions maybe at a very reduced rate but they are still going on. So your digestive system provides an important function of supplying your body with the type of energy it is looking for in different circumstances.
Your body will be looking for an entirely different source of energy when asleep (largely protein sources which are good for repair work) as opposed to say playing sport, when it will be looking for fuel that can be very quickly converted into energy, in this case carbohydrates.
The Urinary System;
As you body need to get rid of unwanted bi products the urinary system plays a key part in the disposal of disposing of things like urea, uric acid, and creatinine. Your kidneys form the center of this process as he filter your blood and redirect the waste to the urinary tract.
If you have ever wondered why you have a reduced need to urinate while playing sport or during increased heart rate activity, this is due to your body needing to increase the blood flow to your muscles and skin to facilitate an increased need for oxygen. Subsequently your blood does not have as much time to be diverted to your kidneys and as a result less waste is created!
This has been a very brief explanation of how your body works. It was not meant to answer all questions, obviously that is not possible in this format. You will find an increasing number of subsidiary articles under the category “Your Body” that will expand to some extent on the many topics of understanding your body.
If you have a specific question, please do not hesitate to ask and I will do my best to answer it as simply as I can.
Enjoy and remember; Persistence pays off, so get over it and get on with it!