What Is Movement

Movement is any activity of the skeletal muscles that leads to a higher energy consumption than at rest. Movement is physical activity and is created by contracting or tensing the muscles. Depending on the situation, the muscle is active with or without a movement effect. By nature, people are endowed with certain physical and mental abilities. These enable us to lead an active life and perform well. For example, we can walk many kilometers, run fast, lift heavy weights, throw a ball, work with tools, make music, paint an expressive picture or operate a computer.

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Motor skills for movement
Healthy exercise and sport

The innate movement abilities (motor skills) develop further through growth, but also through constant learning and practice. So as long as we are alive, they can change or remain the same at a certain level. Because personal performance depends - from childhood to old age - on how we strain our body and thus "train" our physical abilities.

Motor skills for movement

Endurance: biologically speaking, it is the body's ability to produce energy in muscle cells by burning nutrients together with oxygen.
Strength: is the ability of a muscle to develop tension - with or without movement.
Speed: is the ability to move quickly.
Skill: includes the ability to control and coordinate movements. These include, for example, the ability to balance, react or rhythm.
Flexibility: is the ability of the joints to move and the muscles to stretch.

Strength and endurance are basic conditional skills and to a large extent determine a person's performance, biological age and health. Endurance is the ability of muscle cells to resynthesize (replace) depleted adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - a vital concentrate of energy. The more oxygen that can be used to provide energy, the better the endurance. This means: the better this ability is developed, the longer a certain service can be achieved. Endurance can also be referred to as the ability to resist fatigue or the ability to recover. Strength is the prerequisite for any other motor skill, that is, for any kind of movement.

skillrefers to the ability to control and coordinate movements under the control of the brain (neuromuscular coordination). It is also known as the coordinative ability. These include, for example, the ability to balance, react or rhythm. Above all, dexterity is improved by learning and practicing movement sequences. The training of skill and strength helps - especially in old age - to avoid falls.

Speed is the ability to perform a movement with high acceleration. It depends on both strength and coordination skills. Special speed training is only necessary for (high-performance) sporting goals.

Mobility or flexibility describes the range of motion of the joints and the flexibility of the muscles. With good mobility, the range of motion of the joints is large. Targeted stretching prevents muscle shortening, which can result from training, but also from underloading individual muscles.

Various physical and coordinative skills play together in many movement sequences. As a result, everyday movements can be carried out, such as those necessary for work or for coping with daily routines.

Healthy exercise and sport

Regular exercise has a positive effect on health. Achieving a minimum amount of exercise week after week is important for health benefits. The Austrian recommendations for physical activity provide an answer to the question of how much physical activity and what degree of exertion (intensity) per week is recommended.

Many people are not very physically active and spend their everyday lives mainly sedentary. The most important step is going from "physically inactive" to "a little physically active". A healthy amount of exercise can be achieved through various physical activities.

The general rule is: Long periods of sitting should be avoided or repeatedly interrupted by movement!

The daily basic activities include hardly any strenuous movements, ie physical activities with low intensity. This includes activities such as standing, walking slowly, going downstairs or carrying light loads. People who only perform basic daily activities are referred to as "physically inactive".

Health-promoting physical activities have a higher energy consumption than basic activities. All forms of exercise that improve health and where the risk of injury is low are referred to as health-enhancing physical activity. Examples include active mobility (eg brisk walking, cycling), dancing, gardening such as leaf raking, but also many sports.

Sports training is planned, goal-oriented movement and follows special requirements, the training principles. In competitive sports, special motor skills are specifically trained, for example long-term or sprint endurance, high-speed strength, maximum strength, etc. Since physical training improves body functions, this is also physical activity that is beneficial to health if the risk of injury does not increase.

For more information, see Exercise for Health.

Examples of top athletic performance compared to normal physical performance:

Walking: 20 kilometers are covered by top athletes in around an hour and 17 minutes, which corresponds to an average speed of around 15 km / h. For comparison: the speed of normal walking is around four to five km / h.

Running: Top athletes complete the sprint distance of 100 meters in less than 10 seconds, which corresponds to an average speed of around 37 km / h. For comparison: The limit for the Austrian Sports and Gymnastics Badge (ÖSTA) in bronze (18 to 29 years) is a time of 13.80 seconds for men and 17 seconds for women for 100 meters. Compared to humans, a cheetah can run short distances at a speed of 110 km / h.