Unit 7 Reflection

In this unit we learned a lot about muscles and their movements. A big part to what we learned was the function of muscles. Muscles do so many things such as movement, maintaining posture, stabilizing joints, and heat generation. Muscles are so important for our body because we use it in everyday activities. My favorite thing we learned was the muscle movement. We learned about different movements suck as contraction, abduction, adduction, and so many more! We even made a song and dance for it during class and it really did help my understanding of each muscle movement. I struggled on learning the different performance enhancing substances. It was hard for me to memorize the side effects and benefits of each but it was okay because I already knew about some of them prior to the lesson.
I would love to learn more about the movements of the body because it was fun to do each movement and it seems easy in a way to learn about them.
This unit, we did a chicken dissection lab which was really cool because it was something people eat everyday and I didn't that the things I saw were things people actually ate and it was so cool! (pictures below!)

Performance Enhancement Reflection

Performance enhancements have its benefits and its risks. Some benefits include short term alertness and enhancement of athletic performance. Some of their risks include possibly skrinking of body parts, nausea, diahrhea, and if really bad, death. My advertisement was specifically on gene doping. Gene doping is a permanent way of inserting steroids into your body. It helps your muscle growth and athletic performance. It is still experimenting so we don't know if it is comepletely safe to use or take in yet. Below is our advertisement!

Chicken Dissection

In this lab, we dissected a store bought chicken carcass. I thought that this lab was really cool and fun because this is chicken that we eat and the stuff that we saw when dissecting it was so unexpected and cool to see! Muscles of the chicken help with the movement. When dissecting, we saw so many different muscles like the pectoralis major and the trapezius. We also say tendons which connects muscles to bones. Something I thought that was really fascinating was when i pulled the upper arm of the chickens arm, the bottom moved too as if it was waving and I found that so intriguing and it looked as if the chicken were waving! The movement was caused by the tendons connecting the muscle and the bone together. The tendons were kind of stretchy and soft and was pretty hard to find. But with help, we were able to see it clearly. (Pictures below!) The chicken muscles were similar to the human muscles in a way but were also different! They were similar in that the sternum was directly in the middle of the body and totally visible just like ours. Also, the under the skin of the chicken, there was a lot of connective tissue which was used to protect the muscles. So, when peeling of the skin, we also had to peel off the connective tissues to get a better view of the muscles and bones. In some animals, like a mole, the ulna and radius are in reversed order compared to humans but in the chicken, it looks just like ours! In anatomical position, the ulna and radius are in the same position as they would be in humans. I learned so much in this lab yet it was so fun to do. I would love to do this again in the future.
Below are pictures from the dissection!

pectoralis major

pectoralis minor

Trapezius 

Latissimus dorsi

Deltoid

Biceps brachii

Triceps humeralis

Flexor carpi ulnaris

Brachioradialis

Satorius

Iliotibialis

biceps femoris

semimembranosus

semitendinosus

quadriceps femoris

gastrocnemius

Peroneus longus

tibialis anterior

What Happens When You Stretch?

Relate and Review:
Muscle stretching starts with the sacromere. The area increases between the myofilaments. Collagen fibers align themselves with the presence of tension. When muscles are stretched, fibers can lengthen. Proprioceptors have to do with nerves. They're the source of ones own body positiona and movement. They are located in the tendons and in muscle fibers. The basic functiion of the golgi tendon is to help protect muscles, tendons and ligaments from injuries. Recipricol inhibition is when the agonist contracts and forces the antagonists to relax. A muscle spindle records the change in length when a muscle is stretched and sends signals to the spine.
Quotes:
"This basic function of the golgi tendon organ helps to protect the muscles, tendons, and ligaments from injury". This was interesting because it shows the importance of the golgi tendon. I have never heard of it until now and I can see how it benefits our body.
"It is easier to stretch a muscle that is relaxed than to stretch a muscle that is contracting". I did not think it mattered when to stretch your muscle until now. I now can relate this to my workout and only stretch when I am relaxed.
"This basic function of the muscle spindle helps to maintain muscle tone and to protect the body from injury". This is similar to the golgi tendons in that they both help protect us from injuries yet their functions are so different.