Bones, joints and muscles in movement
Every sporting movement is a negotiation between bones that cannot bend, joints that decide how they can move, and muscles that only ever pull.
Part of your national curriculum
- Health and fitness: Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body
Key learning points
- • Joints decide what a movement can look like
- • Muscles work in pairs
- • Two kinds of muscle fibre
- • Contraction types you can feel
This lesson at a glance
- 22 minutes
- 20 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 20
Watch first
Bones, joints and muscles in movement
See joints hinge and muscle pairs pull as a runner moves.
In a nutshell
Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 20
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · Joints decide what a movement can look like
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 20
Learn
Joints decide what a movement can look like
The skeleton gives the body shape, protects organs like the heart and brain, stores minerals and makes blood cells — but for sport its most important job is providing levers and joints. A hinge joint (knee, elbow) moves mainly in one plane: flexion and extension. A ball-and-socket joint (shoulder, hip) adds rotation, abduction and adduction, which is why a bowling arm can circle but a knee cannot. Knowing the joint type tells you which movements are trainable and which are an injury waiting to happen.
Reset break
Part 4 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 20
Learn
Muscles work in pairs
Muscles only pull, never push, so they are arranged in antagonistic pairs. When the biceps contracts to flex the elbow it is the agonist (prime mover) and the triceps is the antagonist, lengthening under control. Reverse the movement and the roles swap. Around them, fixators stabilise the joint (the deltoid steadying the shoulder) and synergists guide the direction of pull. When a netball player passes, the triceps is the agonist for the push and the biceps controls the follow-through.
Quick check
Part 6 of 20
Quick check
Part 7 of 20
Reset break
Part 8 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 2 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 9 of 20
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · Two kinds of muscle fibre
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 10 of 20
Learn
Two kinds of muscle fibre
Type I (slow twitch) fibres contract slowly, resist fatigue and use oxygen well — a distance runner has a high proportion. Type II (fast twitch) fibres contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue fast — a sprinter or a high jumper relies on them. Everyone has both; training shifts how well each type performs rather than swapping one for the other.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 20
Learn
Contraction types you can feel
An isotonic concentric contraction shortens the muscle (rising out of a squat). An isotonic eccentric contraction lengthens it under tension (lowering into the squat, or the quadriceps absorbing landing forces). An isometric contraction produces force with no change in length (a gymnast holding a crucifix, a rugby player in a maul). Eccentric work causes most of the muscle soreness felt a day or two after training.
Reset break
Part 12 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 3 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 13 of 20
Quick check
Part 14 of 20
Explore the idea
Part 15 of 20
Worked example
Analyse a movement in three steps
Take a football instep pass. 1) Name the joint and movement: hip flexion then knee extension. 2) Name the agonist: the quadriceps extends the knee. 3) Name the contraction: concentric during the strike, eccentric in the hamstrings as they decelerate the leg. Any movement in any sport can be described with these same three steps.
Reset break
Part 16 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 17 of 20
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 18 of 20
Game · Recall cards
Which activity best develops cardiovascular endurance?
Card 1 of 4
Mastery quiz
Part 19 of 20
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Bones, joints and muscles in movement
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Which activity best develops cardiovascular endurance?
2. Which joint type allows rotation as well as flexion and extension?
3. During the upward phase of a press-up, the triceps is acting as the:
4. A 5000m runner is likely to have a high proportion of which fibre type?
Lesson round-up
Part 20 of 20
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
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Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body