{"id":2826,"date":"2017-02-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/nervous-system\/"},"modified":"2022-10-19T16:49:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T14:49:24","slug":"nervous-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/personal-fitness-training-blog\/nervous-system\/","title":{"rendered":"The building blocks of the nervous system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>nervous system<\/strong> is vital to our daily functioning as it controls sensory, integrative and motor functioning. In fact, it\u2019s so vital that &#8211; without it &#8211; we are technically dead even though our <strong>heart<\/strong> may still be beating.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What makes up the nervous system?<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/emedicine.medscape.com\/article\/1948665-overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr Jasvinder Chawla<\/a>, Chief of Neurology at Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital, says that the <strong>nervous system<\/strong> is divided into two parts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Central Nervous System (CNS),<\/strong> which is made up of the <strong>brain<\/strong> and <strong>spinal cord<\/strong>, and<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Peripheral Nervous System (PNS),<\/strong> which is made up of <strong>nerves<\/strong> that connect the rest of the body with the CNS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to experts at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northeastern.edu\/nutraumaticbraininjury\/braintbi-anatomy\/brain-functions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Northeastern University<\/a>, the two parts of the brain which are most involved with <strong>exercise<\/strong> are the cerebellum, which controls \u2013 among others \u2013 the speed at which we perform movements as well as the <strong>brain<\/strong> stem that controls aspects such as blood pressure and heart rate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the parts of a nerve?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nerves<\/strong> are made up of billions of <strong>neurons.<\/strong> There are three components to a <strong>nerve:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The cell body contains a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/nucleus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nucleus <\/a>(in other words, a centre) as well as other items such as lysosomes and mitochondria.<\/li>\n<li>The axon which is responsible for transferring nervous impulses to the organs of the body.<\/li>\n<li>The dendrites which gather information from the body\u2019s organs and feed it back to the nervous system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Neurons<\/strong> are classified depending on the function that they perform:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sensory <strong>neurons<\/strong> (also called sensory receptors) transmit signals from the effector site to the CNS.<\/li>\n<li>Interneurons transmit impulses between <strong>neurons.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Motor <strong>neurons<\/strong> transmit impulses from the CNS to the <strong>effector site<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is an effector site?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An effector site is the place where we see things happen because of a <strong>nerve<\/strong> impulse. So, for example, during the <strong>bicep curl<\/strong>, the brain would send an impulse to the hands to lift the <strong>barbell<\/strong> or <strong>dumbbells<\/strong> to perform the exercise. The hands, in this case, would be the effector site.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Xpr4UujJauM\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The importance of sensory receptors in fitness<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nSensory receptors can be found in every part of the <strong>body.<\/strong> They are responsible for relaying environment stimuli to the CNS in order to produce an appropriate response.<\/p>\n<p>These receptors are divided into four categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mechanoreceptors, which are responsible for sensing touch and pressure,<\/li>\n<li>Nociceptors, which are responsible for sensing pain,<\/li>\n<li>Chemoreceptors, which are responsible for the sense of taste and smell, and<\/li>\n<li>Photoreceptors, which are responsible for sensing light and darkness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Fitness<\/strong> professionals are most concerned with mechanoreceptors as these are found in the muscles, <strong>tendons, joints<\/strong> and <strong>ligaments.<\/strong> When the muscle tissue stretches, compresses, experiences traction or tension, they will send signals to the CNS for the appropriate movement to take place.<\/p>\n<p>As a <strong>personal trainer<\/strong>, you will need to have an intimate knowledge about the <strong>anatomy<\/strong> and <strong>physiology<\/strong> of the human <strong>body<\/strong> so that you can advise your clients accordingly. <strong>Trifocus Fitness Academy\u2019s Personal Training Certification<\/strong> is just such a course as it will equip you will all the knowledge that you need in order to soar in your career as a <strong>personal trainer<\/strong>. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/course\/specialised-courses\/personal-training-certificate\/\">here <\/a>for more information.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X2-aWAHWDqs\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The nervous system is vital to our daily functioning as it controls sensory, integrative and motor functioning. In fact, it\u2019s so vital that &#8211; without it &#8211; we are technically dead even though our heart may still be beating. What makes up the nervous system? Dr Jasvinder Chawla, Chief of Neurology at Hines Veterans Affairs&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2116],"tags":[95,355,946,98,305,947,948,357,949,37,28,109,593,413,950,135,311,951,18,63,952,953,954,630,45],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}