Basketball & the Skeletal System

Photo Caption Basketball and the skeletal systemPhoto Credit basketball image by Kit Wai Chan from Basketball is fast paced game requiring quickness and agility. Ceramic Coating Because of the game's reliance on short runs with quick starts and sudden stops, and the use of frequent jumps on either hardwood indoor courts or paved outside surfaces, tremendous stress is placed on the bones and joints of the lower skeleton and back. Regular participation in basketball results in specific training adaptations to these skeletal structures.
Bone FunctionThe human skeleton consists of 206 individual bones anchored to one another with tough fibers of connective tissue called ligaments. Each bone consists of a population of living cells surrounded by a hard, dense calcified material called matrix, which gives bone its strength and rigidity. One of the cell types found in bone is the osteoblast, a cell that continually produces Non Stick Coating new bone matrix while other cells, called osteoclasts, degrade bone matrix. In a normal, healthy person, the rate of osteoblast bone matrix  production equals the rate of osteoclast bone matrix removal and, although bones are continually renewed and remodeled, there is no net gain in bone mass. If osteoclasts work faster than osteoblasts, bone mass and density are lost leading to the condition known as osteoporosis.