NOTES

JUNE 2021
Chapter 1: JOINTS AND MUSCLES

GRADE: 7 SUBJECT: BIOLOGY

Joints

 Bones are linked together by joints.

 Most joints allow different parts of the skeleton to move. The human skeleton has
joints called synovial joints.

The synovial joint

 If two bones just moved against each other, they would eventually wear away. This
can happen in people who have a condition called arthritis.

 To stop this happening, the ends of the bones in a joint are covered with a tough,
smooth substance called cartilage.

 Cartilages are the supporting and connecting structures. For example the cartilage
supporting the projecting external ears and the tip of the nose

 This is kept slippery by a liquid called synovial fluid.

 The synovial fluid is contained in a sac formed of very thin synovial membrane and
it serves as a cushion between the bones

 It acts as a lubricating fluid to reduce friction

 Tough ligaments join the two bones in the joint and stop the joint falling apart.

Movement

Different types of synovial joint allow different types of movement.

The table describes two types of joint:

Type of joint Examples Movement allowed

The same as opening and closing a door, with no rotation

Hinge joint Knee, elbow
(turning)

Ball and Hip,

Back and forth in all directions, and rotation
socket shoulder

The bones cannot move on their own - they need muscles for this to happen.

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Muscles

 Muscles work by getting shorter. We say that they contract, and the process is called
contraction.

 Muscles are attached to bones by strong tendons.

 When a muscle contracts, it pulls on the bone, and the bone can move if it is part of a
joint.

Antagonistic muscles

 Muscles transfer force to bones through tendons.

 They move our bones and associated body parts by pulling on them – this process is
called muscle contraction

 Muscles can only pull and cannot push.

 This would be a problem if a joint were controlled by just one muscle.

 As soon as the muscle had contracted and pulled on a bone, that would be it, with no
way to move the bone back again.

 This problem is solved by having muscles in pairs, called antagonistic muscles.

For example, your elbow joint has two muscles that move your forearm up or down. These
are the biceps on the front of the upper arm and the triceps on the back of the upper arm:

 to raise the forearm, the biceps contracts and the triceps relaxes
 to lower the forearm again, the triceps contracts and the biceps relaxes

The biceps contracts and raises the forearm as the triceps relaxes

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The triceps contracts and lowers the forearm as the biceps relaxes

 In an antagonistic muscle pair as one muscle contracts the other muscle relaxes or
lengthens.
 The muscle that is contracting is called the agonist and the muscle that is relaxing or
lengthening is called the antagonist.
 For example, when you perform a bicep curl, the biceps will be the agonist as it
contracts to produce the movement, while the triceps will be the antagonist as it
relaxes to allow the movement to occur.

Antagonistic muscle pairs

The following groups of muscles are antagonistic pairs:

Biceps Triceps

Hamstrings Quadriceps

Gluteus maximus Hip flexors

Gastrocnemius Tibialis anterior

Pectoralis major Latissimus dorsi

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