How Bones Work
Bones are very important for our body. When you think of bones, you think of support for our body, but bones have a lot more function than what you think. Bones not only support our body and keeps us upright, they protect our inner organs, they help us grow and are our reservoir for minerals, they help us move and also create the blood cells in our body.
Short Bone
A short bone is a cubed shaped bone. These bones can be found in the wrists or ankles. The picture to the left shows the metacarpal bones of the wrist, all of these are classified as short bones for their cubed shaped figures.
Long Bones
Long bones are bones that are longer than wide. These bones make up the limb bones of the body like the femur, the thigh bone, or the humerus, the upper arm bone.
Flat Bones
Flat bones are bones that are thin, flat and curved. Bones like this are the Sternum, breast bone, the Scapula, shoulder bone, bones in the skull, and hip bones. The bones to the left are the shoulder bones, with the scapula, in the back, being the shoulder blades flat bone.
Irregular Bones
Irregular bones are bones that have a to complicated shape to distinguish a shape. These bones in your body are the vertebrae in your spine.
The Structure Of Long Bones
The structure of long bones is very important in bone makeup. The makeup of the bone helps bones grow in width and length to help your body grow taller and stronger, and helps store minerals for body as well. So lets start by naming the parts of the bones.
Periosteum- The membrane that supports the outside of the bone. This membrane supports the blood vessels that keep the bone alive.
Epiphysis- The top and bottom on the bone. This is covered in cartilage and creates the joints.
Spongy Bone- The soft bone that's on the inside of the bone. It's a web like material that helps create the blood cells in your body.
Compact bone- The hard bone of the bone. This makes the bone strong enough to withstand the pressure of your body and weight put on it.
Endosteum- A membrane that lies between the spongy and compact bone and helps the bone grow in width.
Diaphysis- The long axis of the bone. This part is hallow, and is surrounded compact bone. which makes it strong, but still light.
Medullary Cavity- The space in the diaphysis, this is the space for bone marrow.
Epiphysis Line- A line of cartilage between the epiphysis and diaphysis. This cartilage is the site where bone length grows.
Periosteum- The membrane that supports the outside of the bone. This membrane supports the blood vessels that keep the bone alive.
Epiphysis- The top and bottom on the bone. This is covered in cartilage and creates the joints.
Spongy Bone- The soft bone that's on the inside of the bone. It's a web like material that helps create the blood cells in your body.
Compact bone- The hard bone of the bone. This makes the bone strong enough to withstand the pressure of your body and weight put on it.
Endosteum- A membrane that lies between the spongy and compact bone and helps the bone grow in width.
Diaphysis- The long axis of the bone. This part is hallow, and is surrounded compact bone. which makes it strong, but still light.
Medullary Cavity- The space in the diaphysis, this is the space for bone marrow.
Epiphysis Line- A line of cartilage between the epiphysis and diaphysis. This cartilage is the site where bone length grows.
The Structure Of Short, Flat, And Irregular Bones
The structure of all the other bones in our body is also very important, because all bones have to grow with the body. The insides of all the other bone is similar to longs bones, with just a few exceptions.
Periosteum- The membrane that surrounds the bone, just like for long bones, it helps support the blood vessels that keep it alive.
Spongy bone- Spongy bone in the other bones is different from the long bones. Instead of one designated spot for the spongy bone, it's in little packs called Diploe throughout the bone.
Compact bone- Hard bone on the outside part of the bone that keeps the bone strong.
Endosteum- Covers the spongy bone and is the sight for done growth in width.
Periosteum- The membrane that surrounds the bone, just like for long bones, it helps support the blood vessels that keep it alive.
Spongy bone- Spongy bone in the other bones is different from the long bones. Instead of one designated spot for the spongy bone, it's in little packs called Diploe throughout the bone.
Compact bone- Hard bone on the outside part of the bone that keeps the bone strong.
Endosteum- Covers the spongy bone and is the sight for done growth in width.
Bones have alot of composition to keep them big and strong, and the compositions are broken up into two different types, organic composition and inorganic composition.
Organic composition- This consists of osteoblasts, osteocytes, osteaclasts and osteiods. These are the cells of the bone. Osteoblasts build bone structures and osteoclasts break bone structure down. Both of these work together to help make new bone for your body.
Inorganic Composition- This consists of Hydroxyadaties and mineral salts. This is mainly calcium phosphates which is responable for the hardness of the bone and it's resistance to compression. This is about 65% of the bone mass. Without you your bones would be rubber and would break easily to any compression.
Organic composition- This consists of osteoblasts, osteocytes, osteaclasts and osteiods. These are the cells of the bone. Osteoblasts build bone structures and osteoclasts break bone structure down. Both of these work together to help make new bone for your body.
Inorganic Composition- This consists of Hydroxyadaties and mineral salts. This is mainly calcium phosphates which is responable for the hardness of the bone and it's resistance to compression. This is about 65% of the bone mass. Without you your bones would be rubber and would break easily to any compression.
Bones Of A Band Member
Their are many bones in the body and many bones that help with the movement of a marching band member. Joints are two bones joined together, and the movement allowed is what the joint makes it. So to name the major bones, we'll just go threw the bones connected to the major joints.
The Feet Bones
The feet are very important in marching band, they allow you the ability to march. And there are many bones in just the feet of your body. Your feet are split up into three different parts: The Tarsals, Metatarsals, and the Phalanges. The tarsals are the bones of the ankle. This includes the navicular, the talus, the calcaneus, the cuboid, and the medial, intermediate, and lateral cuneiform. The metatarsals are the middle part of your foot, right before you're toes, these are just called the 1st- 5th metatarsals. And finally the Phalanges. These are you're toes.
The Legs And Hips
As we know, the legs are very important in marching band, because they get you around the field. The bones that connect to the ankle to make the subtalar joint and the true ankle joint are the Fibula and Tibia. The Tibia is the big bone that is on the side of your big toe, and the Fibula is the littler bone on the side of your pinky toe. Above, is the Femur, and together the Tibia and the Femur make the knee joint. The Patella, also known as the knee cap, is a bone on top on the knee joint to protect it, and it's actually a floating bone! Only attached by a piece of tendon to hold on, this is why it's so easy to move your knee cap and dislocate it. Now moving up the Femur, you get your hips. The top of your femur is the "ball" part of the ball and socket joint that connects to the hips.
The Spine
As we all know, the spine is probably the most important part of your body. The vertebrae are all basically the same structure, with the exception of different sizes, and are split up into 5 different sections. The cervical is the top section, this consists of the 7 vertebrae that make up your neck. Next is the thoracic, this is made up of the 12 vertebrae that make your back. The lumbar is the 5 vertebrae the make up your lower back. The sacrum comes next, now starting at the sacrum the vertebrae become "fused" which means that instead of separate vertebrae that have synovial fluid in between them, there a fused together to make a bone like structure. The sacrum has 5 fused vertebrae that make up your bottom of your back, and then the Coccyx is last, with 4 fused vertebrae that make up your tail bone.
The Wrists, Shoulders and Elbows
The arms are most important for holding your instrument in marching band. And how they do it is with the strong bones that can support that much weight. The fingers and wrist are set up just like the bones in your feet, with the Carpals, Metacarpals, and Phalanges. Next is the Radius and Ulna bones. These bones are your forearm bones, the radius always on the thumb side and the ulna always on the pinky side. These bones actually over lap each other when you have your hand face down, if you hold your palm face up, then they well be straightened out. Above these two bones is the Humerus bone, and all three of these bones together connect to make the elbow. The top of the Humerus bone is the ball of the ball and socket joint of the shoulder. The shoulder blade is the scapula, which is on the back of your body. The scapula doesn't connect to anything in the back, so the Clavicle bones holds your whole arm in place by connecting from the scapula to the sternum, or the breast bone.