Ch 7Physiology and Injuries in Sports — Class 12 Physical Education, concept-first.

Every time an athlete trains or competes, the body responds as one coordinated machine: muscles contract, the heart beats faster, breathing deepens and stored fuel is released to power the effort.

Exercise physiology is the study of how the human body responds and adapts to exercise. Almost every system of the body is drawn into that response — the skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardio…

Skeletal muscles are made up of muscle fibres, which fall into two broad categories: slow-twitch fibres (Type I) and fast-twitch fibres (Type II).

Cellular respiration is the process by which the energy currency of the cell, ATP (adenosine triphosphate), is formed from food.

The cardiorespiratory system is the combination of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, which work together to transport oxygen to the cells and to support metabolism by delivering the nutrient…

Having looked at the three physiological factors, we can now see how they combine to determine the components of physical fitness.

Exercise is a series of sustained muscle contractions, either long or short depending on the nature of the activity.

The cardiorespiratory system is made up of two parts that work as one: the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system.

The effects of exercise on the cardiovascular system, like those on the muscles, can be divided into short-term and long-term effects.

Exercise changes the way the respiratory system works, again with both short-term and long-term effects.

Ageing is an inevitable and highly complex, multifactorial process marked by the progressive degeneration of the body's organ systems and tissues.

Sports participation and regular exercise can be interrupted whenever an athlete picks up an injury — sometimes ending active participation for a while, sometimes leaving a painful experience that lin…

Sports injuries can be classified according to the cause of the injury. The NCERT/CBSE Class 12 Physical Education syllabus groups them into five broad categories.

Besides classifying injuries by their cause, sports injuries can also be described by their nature. The chart below shows the different ways a sports injury may be viewed.

A soft tissue injury is damage to the muscles, ligaments and tendons anywhere in the body. The six soft tissue injuries named in the CBSE Class 12 Physical Education syllabus are shown below.

An injury to the skeletal system of the body — one in which a bone cracks or breaks — is called a hard tissue injury. Hard tissue injuries are of two kinds: dislocation and fractures.

- Exercise physiology studies how the body responds to exercise. Three physiological factors determine the components of physical fitness — the skeletal-muscle factor (the mix of slow-twitch Type I an…