‘It is at this time, with the rapid increase in muscle power, that future athletes, gymnasts, dancers and sportsmen and women become apparent’

Adolescence — the period between about 10 years and 18 is one of the most important and exciting times of your life. It is a time of rapid physical development and growth and emotional adjustment, reflecting your change from childhood to adult maturity.

But, it is also a vulnerable and impressionable time, and your ability to cope successfully during these changes will affect you well into your adult life.

Adolescence is a time for development, but once growth has ceased there is no physical improvement without an increase in physical effort. 

YOUTHFULNESS AND AGE

How can exercise and fitness affect the whole body, not just little bits of it?  Think about the physical characteristics of a young person and then of an old person. That should give you a few clues.

A true picture of health can be seen in the structure of any infant—they are the living models of youthfulness.

In their pattern of development, flexibility precedes strength — every child emerges from a curled foetal position, stretches its muscles, opens their joints and then slowly strengthens their body as they carry their ever increasing weight through space, to sit, crawl, stand and eventually walk and run.

In this way the young child builds strength upon suppleness, strengthening flexible joints and supple resilient muscles.

Look at any young child that sits and stands upright. Their back is straight and strong, and their shoulders, chest and belly are open and relaxed.

The young child is a true picture of physical symmetry and through every activity he or she strengthens a symmetrical flexible body that assists the functions of the organs and glands that it supports.

AGEING STIFFNESS AND INFLEXIBILITY

Without proper exercise the body deteriorates and this becomes more and more evident with age.

Look around you — stiff backs, necks, shoulders and legs are common amongst the older generations, playing havoc with posture and generally impairing the quality of life.

Stiffness in the musculoskeletal system is now so common that it is generally accepted as being part of the ageing process and most people feel it to be inevitable.

This should not necessarily be the case. What is true, however, is that most people mature and go through their lives without ever being shown how to take care of the major part of their body—their muscles, bones and joints.
 
Stiffness and inflexibility does not invade the body overnight. This starts in childhood as the muscles contract in response to emotional and physical trauma, and the residues of these traumas slowly accumulate with the stresses and strains of everyday life and become apparent in adulthood.

It need not be like this though, not if you know what to do to maintain and improve the health of your muscles and joints.

In this way your body can improve with age, not degenerate. Inflexibility is like a disease and it will not remedy itself; it gets worse unless it is 'treated'.

Sooner or later as the muscles contract with stiffness they begin to pull the body's bony structure out of alignment and off balance. The effects of this upon the other systems that support the body's life is disastrous.

The nervous system is bombarded with messages, the nerves themselves are often trapped within the joints and the pain of these conditions override all the other pleasurable sensations that emanate from the body.

Indeed when the pain becomes too intense the nervous system cuts out and the affected parts become partially paralysed and lose heat and sensation.

 As the skeleton is pulled off balance the return to an upright posture becomes increasingly difficult. The strength of the back muscles that support the spine diminishes, the shoulders round and the chest cramps, compressing the abdomen.

As the trunk inclines forward great strain is placed upon the lower back and hip joints in order to maintain a semblance of uprightness. The legs then take on the load and their muscles and joints become stiff from the stress of supporting an imbalance of weight.

As the shoulders round, the rib cage begins to collapse and breathing is impaired, a healthy supply of oxygen is no longer carried to the tissues and the body's vitality diminishes.

As the chest collapses further it compresses the abdomen and slows peristalsis, abdominal breathing diminishes and becomes less of an aid to digestion and the food ingested remains far longer within the digestive system.

Stiffness in the leg muscles coupled with poor breathing inhibits the venous return of blood to the heart, and circulation becomes impaired.

YOUR BODY

When does one and one equal one? At conception, when a reproductive cell from each parent merges into a single cell. The human body subsequently develops from this single cell, entailing billions of cell divisions, with each individual cell retaining all the major features of a living organism.

Grouped together into layers, the cells form tissues. These tissues in turn are arranged into organs that perform specialised functions; for convenience these organs and their functions are referred to as systems.
 
For example, the body is supported by the skeletal system, moved by the muscular system and controlled by the nervous system. Life and activity is maintained with energy obtained from food ingested through the digestive system and oxygen obtained through the respiratory system.

These ingredients are distributed by the blood vascular system, which also helps to remove wastes to the urinary system. Physical and chemical processes are integrated by the endocrine system, and the species is reproduced by the reproductive system.

Musculoskeletal System

The musculoskeletal system is the overall term for the muscles, bones and joints that function together to protect, position and move the body through space. These are the most obvious parts of the human body and together they constitute some three-quarters of its total mass and weight.

Skeleton

The skeleton consists of bones and joints and is the basis of your body's form and structure. The skeleton provides a living, moving, supporting frame for the soft parts of the body.

It protects vital organs within its frame, like the heart and lungs within the rib cage and the brain and spinal cord within the spine and skull. The bones themselves provide a major reservoir into which calcium is deposited and from which it is withdrawn as needed.
 
Within the bones takes place the formation of red blood cells, vital to the life and growth of all the body's tissues and organs.

Joints

The joints or articulations perform two functions. They bind the bones firmly to each other by ligaments, and they permit movement between them.

The joints are at the root of all movement; without them our bodies would be rigid and immobile.

Using the joints the bones, like levers, are pulled into movement, by their attached muscles. Add the movements that you make with your body you direct through your skeleton.

Muscles

Not only do the muscles provide your body with its contours. More importantly, they are attached to the bones and are responsible for moving them.

When you lift your arm or your leg, for example, many muscles become involved, all acting together to comply with the way in which you direct your bones.

The muscles are organs of energy and potential power and their ability to be active and passive are the two essential ingredients of all movement.

In movement the muscles work as mutual opposites; as one muscle becomes active, contracts and shortens to pull the bone into motion, so its partner becomes passive, relaxes and stretches to allow the bone to be moved from its joint.

Your muscles are also major organs of sensation, contracting and relaxing in response to pleasure and pain and to changes in the temperature of your environment.

Your muscles protect your body and in response to a fall or a blow they will contract in order to minimise pain and contain the injury. Your muscles will also contract in response to an emotional threat or upheaval, especially in those areas of the body that are not protected by the bones, such as the neck, throat and abdomen.

 

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