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Topic outline

 
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  • Time: 5 hours
    Level: Introductory

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • With the announcement of the summer Olympics coming to London in 2012, fierce competition between football clubs in the domestic league, and developments in coaching and training throughout all areas of...
 

1 What to expect

  • 1 What to expect Resource
  • In this unit you will look at how sport can be understood from a scientific perspective. This is a large topic with many possible approaches. We will try to focus on specific details while maintaining...
 

2 A first look at the human body

  • 2.1 Introduction Resource
  • The human body is a sophisticated and amasing entity. Think about the mechanical way the limbs operate, the electrical brain functions and chemicals working together in the different body organs. All of...
  • 2.2 The body as a machine Resource
  • This is a useful way of thinking if we want to understand some basic aspects of how the body works in its relation to sport. We can think of the body as a device that operates on simple mechanical principles,...
  • 2.3 The body's different systems Resource
  • The body has a variety of different internal systems such as the skeleton, the collection of muscles, and the network of arteries and veins. To understand properly how the body works, we need to understand...
  • 2.4 The body's different components Resource
  • Looking at the body this way means thinking about things as small as atoms and molecules, and as large as whole body parts. This allows us to think about how everything works at an appropriate level. If...
  • 2.5 What's this got to do with sport? Resource
  • So, we've seen three ways of looking at the how the body works. This is useful science but what has this to do with sport? Do athletes really need to think about their bodies scientifically, or can they...
  • 2.6 Making notes Resource
  • Turning ideas you learn from this unit into your own words through taking notes can help sharpen your understanding and focus your thinking. The key to successful note taking is to create notes that capture...
  • 2.7 A few final comments Resource
  • The aim of this section was to introduce the basic elements of human biology and show you the different approaches and levels that we have to deal with when we consider the links between human biology,...
 

3 The heart, blood and the lungs

 

4 Athletes and efficient hearts

  • 4.1 Introduction Resource
  • The heart is the engine of the human body – but what about it's specific function in athletes participating in sport? We have seen that athletes need to get oxygen and nutrients to different parts of their...
  • 4.2 A resting heart rate Resource
  • We can understand the role of the athlete's heart in sport a little more clearly by looking at typical heart rates for trained athletes compared with heart rates for non-athletes. A commonly used measure...
  • 4.3 Measuring your heart rate Resource
  • The most common way of measuring heart rate is by feeling the pulse at one of the arteries. The pulse is quite literally that – a pulse of blood running through the artery each time the heart does one...
  • 4.4 Maximum heart rate Resource
  • The other part of an efficient heart is the maximum rate that it can beat. If we think about competitors in a race that takes about five minutes, the athlete whose heart can beat at 200 times per minute...
 

5 The heart and blood

  • 5.1 Introduction Resource
  • Elite athletes are aware of the importance of heart performance and blood flow and many have specific training programmes to increase the strength and efficiency of the heart. This is not, however, just...
  • 5.2 Two halves of one pumping system Resource
  • The heart pumps blood around the body. That might seem obvious, and you might think that there must be more to it than that, but there isn't. That is all that it does. However, this is a crucially important...
  • 5.3 Blood vessels: veins, arteries and capillaries Resource
  • The tubes that carry blood around the body can be loosely divided into two types, arteries and veins. Arteries are the tubes that take blood away from the heart. They tend to be quite large, at least a...
  • 5.4 Finding your own arteries and veins Resource
  • Some arteries and veins are hidden well inside the body, but we can usually find them at the joints, where they are fairly close to the surface of the skin. For example, at the back of your knee you can...
  • 5.5 What is blood? Resource
  • So, having learned about how blood moves around the body, let's now look at what it's made up of and therefore why we need it at all, and why its health has an effect on sporting performance.
  • 5.6 A few final thoughts Resource
  • You will have seen from this section that it is difficult to talk about the heart without also talking about blood and veins and arteries. It is hard to isolate one body system or one body part and describe...
 

6 Athletes, oxygen and the lungs

 

7 Next steps

  • 7 Next steps Resource
  • After completing this unit you may wish to study another OpenLearn unit, here are a few suggestions:
 

8 Glossary

 

References and Acknowledgements

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