Lesson video

Hi there.

My name's Mr. Swaithes, and I'm really looking forward to teaching you today.

So we're gonna be looking at the different types of bones in the human body, and how we classify them based on their shape and their purpose.

So this lesson is called the Classification of bones applied to performance in physical activities and sport, and it comes from the unit Anatomy and physiology: the musculoskeletal system.

And I guess what will get exciting and interesting in this lesson is that opportunity to think, well, which bones in the body provide which function? And some of them provide multiple functions, but one perhaps might be more important than the other.

And it builds on previous knowledge around, you know, names of different bones.

So for example, the skull or cranium as we now refer to it, has got a role, hasn't it, largely around protecting the brain.

And often bones like that have certain features in common.

So that's one that we're gonna think about in today's lesson.

So by the end of today's lesson, you're gonna be able to describe the different types of bone and their function in relation to sport.

And there's a whole collection of keywords that you're gonna need to know.

But the most important ones are to be able to define short bone, so that's a small bone that's used for weight bearing, long bone, so that's a large bone that's used for leverage and movement, flat bone, which is a bone that provides that protection of vital organs and provides a flat surface for muscular attachments.

So two slightly different roles there.

I mentioned the cranium before.

I wonder if you can think where is that other major flat bone in the body that is actually more about muscle attachment and movement.

I wonder if you can think about where that is.

And then irregular bones are bones that are shaped to provide protection and muscle attachment.

I wonder if you can think if there's an area in the body where there's lots of connected little, tiny bones that have a really important role to protect something running up the middle of them.

So they're the keywords from today's lesson and we're gonna break the lesson up into two parts.

So the first part will give us a chance to classify those different types of bone based on their shape.

And then we'll get into explaining the function of those different bones.

Hope you're ready.

Let's get started.

So, here we've got a little illustration of a skeleton.

And we know, don't we, that bones vary in shape and size based on their primary function.

And I can bring up my little skeleton here again.

And we can see lots of different shaped bones and lots of different sizes of bone.

And they vary based on their main function.

So for some them, (flicks skull) it's about protecting vital organs like the brain, the heart and the lungs.

For others it's to enable movement.

Here I am waving or kicking a ball.

So, major limbs are involved in movement of the arms and legs, but can you name some of the bones that are most important for movement? Perhaps pause the video for a second and have a go at naming some.

And then can you think, do they have any common features? What's similar about all of those bones that are important for movement? Well, we refer to them as long bones.

Now, a long bone, and here's an example of one, is a bone that is probably one of the most common ones in the human body.

We've got about 90 long bones in the human body.

They've got a long shaft and the the key is that it's longer than it is wide.

And then it's got a really thick outside layer of compact bone that makes it really rigid and strong.

And those long bones meet at joints.

We've got here the humerus meeting at the elbow joint with the radius and the ulna.

And then largely, points of attachment for muscles.

So the biceps muscle expands over that humerus bone and connects, it inserts at the the radius or the ulna to enable that movement to happen.

Some examples then of long bones, I've mentioned one already, that that big one in the arm is called the humerus.

And beneath it we've got the radius and the ulna and they're also long bones.

And then in the leg we've got the thigh.

(taps model) What's the correct anatomical name of a thigh? That's right, it's the femur.

And then beneath that we've got the shin bone, known as the tibia and that little floating bone behind it known as the fibula.

Okay then, let's have a quick check.

Which image here shows long bones? Is it A: the bones at the skull, is it B: the bones in the leg, or is it C: the bones in the wrist? That's right, isn't it? So it's B, the bones in the leg.

Whereas the skull is a flat bone and bones in the wrist are known as short bones.

So, Laura here is gonna help our understanding a little bit more and she's wondering, "What about the bones in the feet and the bones in the hand? They seem quite small, but they're shaped like long bones." So we've got the toes here and we've got the fingers here.

Well, metacarpals, metatarsals and phalanges, so not just the phalanges, the fingers and the toes, but also the bones in that kind of long section of the arch of the foot and the bones on in the hand here.

So the ones in the hand are called the metacarpals.

The ones in the foot are called the metatarsals.

And then the phalanges as well are known as long bones, even though they're quite small, their shaft is longer than they are wide.

And then in contrast, we've got short bones, haven't we? So they're roughly equal in length and width.

So they're kind of like little cuboid bones.

And that makes them really suitable for an important role at those joints.

I wonder if you can figure out at the wrist and at the ankle, what's some of the important roles that they play, because they're quite a spongy bone covered in a thin layer of compact bone to make them nice and strong.

So the bones of the carpals and the tarsals are great examples of short bones.

We've got the carpals there in the hand and the tarsals there down towards your toes.

And they are known as short bones.

Then we move on into flat bones.

So we've mentioned one at the beginning, didn't we? The cranium.

And in fact, we don't have one in the cranium, we have a number of plates, if you like, to the cranium that come into contact.

There's no movement allowed at those joints, but they exist from when we were born and our skull grew with us.

Otherwise we'd have tiny heads.

Okay? So the bones that are flattened out, usually are a kind of a curved shape, they're made up of a layer of spongy bone between two thin layers of compact bone.

And they're known as flat bones.

We've got them in the cranium.

We've got one here, the sternum, that protects the heart and lungs and connects to the ribs.

And we've got one there, the scapula.

So that big, triangular shoulder blade bone.

And we've also got the pelvis or the pelvic girdle there.

That's around the middle region here.

Okay, and then on into our next category of bone, we've got irregular bones.

And we know, don't we, that the vertebrae, they don't fit into any of those categories.

So we call the the vertebrae an irregular bone, because it doesn't fit into any of those other categories.

And they vary in shape and structure, but they're typically pretty complex in shape, and they protect internal organs.

So the individual bones that make up the vertebrae are that great example of irregular bones.

Let's do a quick check then, see if you can figure this one out.

So which image is an example of a short bone? Is it A: one of the skull? Is it B: that image of the pelvis or is it C: that image of the tarsals? That's right, it's C.

The tarsals are an example of the short bone, a cuboid bone.

Okay, that brings us into our first practise task of today's lesson then.

So I'd like you to use this skeletal diagram and label the following bones.

So the humerus, the cranium, the femur, the tarsals, the sternum, and the tibia, the carpals, and the vertebral column.

So all bones that we've mentioned in today's lesson.

And then the most important part, this second part, is I'd like you to create your own little key to categorise those bones as either long, short, flat, or irregular.

So you might, for example, put in brackets after the word humerus, an L if you think it's a long bone, an S if you think it's a short bone, an F if you think it's a flat bone or an I if you think it's an irregular bone.

Pause the video now whilst you have a go at that and come back to me when you are ready.

Okay, so did you come up with these? So we've got the humerus, the femur, and the tibia.

They are all examples of long bones and you can see them there identified, that's the humerus in the upper arm, the femur in the upper leg or thigh, the tibia in the shin.

And then we've got the carpals and the tarsals.

So they're examples of short bones, carpals in our wrist, tarsals in our ankle.

And then we've got the two main flat bones of the cranium protecting the brain and the sternum at the front here, could also have labelled the scapula, couldn't we? And then we've got the vertebral column or the vertebrae spine, which is an example of an irregular joint.

Okay, that takes us nicely into the second part of today's lesson where we're gonna explain the function of the different bones in relation to sport in particular.

And Laura's got a question for us.

So most of her skeletal bones are made up of long bones, but why are they so important? Well, long bones are essential for large or gross movements.

This occurs at joints due to the leverage that is caused by skeletal muscles that enable that big movement to happen.

And here we've got a picture of someone in a really flexible position, showing how well those long bones enable big movements.

Next question from Laura.

So "is movement and leverage the only function of a long bone?" What do you think? Well, no, it's not actually, because in those long bones, they've also got that bone marrow, that cavity in the middle of the shaft, and that is where blood cells are produced, isn't it? So long bones actually have got a couple of functions, movement and blood cell production.

So let's have a quick check.

The main purpose of long bones is leverage.

True or false? That's right, it's true.

And why? Well, because long bones like the femur and the humerus are essential for those large or gross movements that occur due to leverage joints.

And it's almost like a secondary purpose, that production of blood cells.

So of course if we couldn't move, we wouldn't need oxygen to enable us to provide energy for that movement to keep happening.

So the primary function is movement.

Short bones, on the other hand, are really important for weight bearing.

That's why we've got them at the ankle and at the wrist.

So we've got here a picture of someone in a front support or at the beginning of a press up position, and you can see there, can't you? How important those wrist joints and the bones at the wrist will be for weight bearing.

We've got someone here in a handstand position.

Again, the wrists so important for weight bearing.

And then we've got someone here providing lateral jumps.

So jumping from side to side, demonstrating that that ankle joint, there's that weight bearing roll of those short bones.

And then if we move on into flat bones, well they're essential for protection of vital organs.

So we've shared the example already of the cranium protecting the brain.

The pelvis here is another flat bone I didn't mention earlier, and that protects the reproductive system or the organs there.

So here we've got a nice illustration of how that cranium protects the brain.

Can you think of any other examples of flat bones? So I've mentioned the pelvic girdle and the cranium.

Where are some other flat bones? Well, let's do a quick check, shall we? So which of the following is not an example of a flat bone? Is it A: the sternum, B: the pelvis, C: the tibia, or D: the cranium? Use a process of elimination here if you need it.

That's right.

The tibia is a long bone, isn't it? Whereas the other three are all flat bones.

Okay, so the sternum and ribs are both referred to as flat bones, and the sternum there, in orange, attaches the ribs at the front of the chest.

And it's vital to protect the heart and lungs.

They can't get in.

You know, if you were to chest the football down and you didn't have a sternum, then the contact of that ball would be going straight into your heart and your lungs.

So it's really important for protection.

Can you think of any sports where that would be important? I've just mentioned football.

Can you think of any others? Okay, well let's move on then to the scapula is highlighted this time.

So this is a flat bone, but for the scapula, its function is much more about movement.

So it's that shoulder girdle, a big, flat shoulder blade there, that enables the movements in so many different directions at the shoulder joint.

So there's so many sites of muscle attachment around that scapula, that's why that's its more major role.

But we tend to classify bones based on their shape more so than their function.

And then lastly, what have we got here? What's this an illustration of? That's right.

It's a vertebrae, isn't it? Or a vertebral column.

So each separate one is called a vertebrae, and when we collect them together, they're called the vertebral column.

And they are irregular bones.

Between each one, you can see on the illustration there, there's a little bit of movement possible.

And that's thanks to those cartilaginous discs that I've heard someone say, "Oh, I've slipped a disc in my back." Well that's that little bit of rubber in between each of the vertebrae, so when I say rubber I mean cartilage.

So that little bit of shock absorption that enables a little bit of movement in between each one, which all adds up to being quite a bit of movement I can achieve at my vertebral column forwards and backwards and side to side.

However, their main function is provide that protection of the spinal cord, which is that, you know, strip of electrical nerve cables if you like, that are running up through the vertebral column.

And they carry those nerve signals between your brain and the rest of your body.

Okay, so the second task for this lesson I'd like you to have a go at is to provide examples of each of the following types of bone and how they function in a boxing match.

So thinking about long bone, short bones, flat bones and an irregular bone, and how do they work for that boxer? Pause the video now whilst you have a go at that and I'll see you in a moment.

Okay, let's see what you came up with.

So, long bones such as the humerus, the radius and the ulna enable that boxer to be able to punch and block punches.

And then the bones, the humerus, the radia, sorry, the femur down here and the tibia and the fibula are what's enabled them to move around, dance around the ring.

There we've got short bones in the wrist and in the ankles, and they allow those little adjustments in movement, but also they bear the boxes weight whilst moving and also avoiding punches.

Flat bones, so the cranium, the sternum, and the ribs provide protection to the brain, the heart and the lungs respectively.

And that means those punches from the opposition don't get straight to our organs, causing permanent damage.

And then we've got a irregular bones, haven't we? So the vertebral column here protects the spinal cord so that those nerve messages can be sent to the different muscles in the arms and legs that trigger us to move.

Well done if you've got all of those ones correct.

Okay, so it just leaves me a little bit of time left to do a summary.

So this lesson was called the Classification of bones applied to performance in physical activities in sports.

And we learned, didn't we, that the skeletal system provides the structural framework for movement, which occurs at those joints.

And the shape of different bones determines the amount of movement that can occur.

We learned that short bones are really important for weight bearing.

We learned that long bones enable leverage and those gross movements, big movements.

We learned that flat bones protect vital organs and, or perhaps they also provide a large surface area for muscle attachment, in the case of that big, triangular bone at the back of the shoulder there, which is called the scapula.

And then irregular bones don't fit into other categories due to their non-uniform shape, and the vertebrae are an example of irregular bones.

Well done for today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing you next time.