Healthy habits related to the locomotor system

Physical exercise

Musculoskeletal injuries can be avoided if we keep fit, exercising enough so that our muscles can develop and do not atrophy due to lack of work.

But before exercising, it is necessary to warm up to avoid muscle injuries, such as contractures or strains, and injuries to the ligaments.

Regular exercise in a moderate way allows us to:

• Prevent injuries, since muscles develop and adapt to being subjected to greater efforts.
• Increase cardiac activity, with which the myocardium increases in size and better resists intense efforts.
• Prevent strokes, as blood flow is improved.
• Increase lung capacity, as the chest muscles develop.
• Increase, agility, coordination, power, speed, flexibility, etc.
• Reduce obesity and being overweight.
• Regulate the motility of the intestine, avoiding constipation.
• Help you relax.
• Reduce stress, improve self-esteem and increase general well-being.

Interactive activity: Physical exercise and health .

Correct posture

The musculoskeletal system ensures that we adopt a certain posture, although the spinal column and the dorsal muscles are responsible for supporting the weight.

It is not uncommon for us to feel pain in the back after having been in bad posture for a while. If we maintain this bad position as usual, it can cause us a significant injury. That is why it is important to be careful with the positions acquired, especially in children and adolescents.

All of us, but especially young people, spend many hours a day sitting down. It is important to adopt a good sitting posture to avoid back pain in the future.

But it is also necessary to use furniture that adapts to our physical characteristics. Just as a 6-foot-tall high school student should not be at a very small table because they would have to have their legs very hunched down, a child student should not use a chair so high that it prevents them from leaning with their feet on the floor.

Both pain and fatigue influence the attention we pay, our mood, our relationships and, therefore, our health.

The locomotor system is responsible for maintaining the posture of the body, and we must be careful what posture we adopt, especially in sedentary jobs and when we sleep.

Some tips to avoid damaging your back are:

• When you squat, you don't have to bend your back at the lower back. You have to go down with your back straight, bending your knees.
• Carry the backpack with the books or whatever on your back, using the two handles.
• Sit with your feet on the floor, without crossing your legs, with your back on the backrest and your head facing forward.
• Try not to sleep on your stomach, and use a pillow high enough so that your head and spine are at the same height .
• If you sleep on your side, let it be with the lower leg stretched out, and the upper leg flexed, resting on the bed, not on the other leg.
• Choose the right shoe. In addition to looking at the color, shape, price, heel, etc., see if it favors the movement of the foot. If you wear inappropriate footwear, you can have problems such as corns and bunions, and even affect the ankles, knees and spine.

If we do not take care of the posture we adopt, we can have pain and serious back problems. The most common back problems are:

• Scoliosis is the lateral deviation of the spine.

• Kyphosis is an exaggerated curvature of the dorsal area of ​​the spine. Produces the appearance of a "hump".

• Hyperlordosis is an exaggerated curvature of the lower back of the spine.

By OpenStax College [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Activity: Postures.

Feeding

Having a healthy and balanced diet is essential for all devices, including the locomotor system.

The consumption of foods such as dairy products favors good ossification, since it will provide the amount of calcium and phosphorus that the individual absorbs during digestion.

The vitamin D, obtained from sunlight and foods like milk and eggs, promotes the deposition of calcium in the bones.

If we carry out a very intense muscular activity it will be convenient to have a diet enriched in carbohydrates to have energy available for the muscle cells.