Anatomy for sports and exercise Task 1The function of a skeleton is to give us support to stand up and move, it also gives us our posture

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Anatomy for sports and exercise

Task 1

The function of a skeleton is to give us support to stand up and move, it also gives us our posture and shape and is a framework for out vital organs such as our brain, lungs and heart and so on. So basically the function of our skeleton is to support, protect and enable movement. The human skeleton is made up of 206 bones. The human skeleton provides a lever system which muscles can pull. It produces red blood cells and also sores fats and calcium and also phosphate.

The skeleton is divided into 2 groups the appendicular skeleton, appendicular meaning hanging on and the axial skeleton arranged along the long axis o our body.

Our axial skeleton includes the skull, the vertebral column and the bony thorax (ribs). This provides us with central support for the body and protects internal support.

There are a total of 24 individual vertebrae in the spinal column, the fused vertebrae that make up the coccyx and sacrum. The coccyx and the sacrum is the part that is shaded in red on the diagram, the sacrum is the upper half and the coccyx is the lower half. The cervical region is the most superior and has 7 vertebrae. This part shaded green.  Next are the thoracic region with 12, this is the part shaded blue and finally the lumbar region with 5 which is the part shaded yellow.

The first two vertebrae are named the atlas and the axis. The atlas is the first vertebrae and the axis is the second. The articulation with the skull allows the head to move in a nodding direction (the "yes" movement) while the articulation with the dens of the axis allows the head to move from side to side (the "no" movement). Our vertebrae allow us to stand up straight and the main bone structure because every other bone is connected to it and this is where all our main nerves run.

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The skull is the complete skeleton forming a framework. It consists of a mosaic of many bones most of which are paired. These bones fit closely together to form a single rigid structure. It is basically a bone case around the brain, which provides holes for cranial nerves to exit and some vessels to enter the brain. Sensory organs are located in special compartments. For example: Eye - bony orbit

The main function of the skull therefore is protection, however, the skull has other functions such as to provide an attachment for muscles.

Protection: The cranial capsule encloses and ...

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