Neural circuits

Networks of nerves and their connections

Sensory information

Any information coming from your senses including signals from the body

Sciatica

Pain emanating from the sciatic nerve, typically experienced in the regions of the back, buttock and leg, down to the foot

Nociceptors

Nerve fibres normally dedicated to sensing intense or threatening stimuli

Peripheral nerves

Nerves outside of the spinal cord (as opposed to inside)

Neurophysiology

A branch of medical science dealing with the functioning of the nervous system

RDA

Recommended Daily Allowance; the daily amount of a nutrient required to produce health and prevent deficiency diseases

Hormones

Compounds made in the body that act as chemical messengers, telling cells what to do

Essential fatty acids

Certain types of fats that cannot be synthesised in the body, but which are essential for health (ie they have to be obtained from the diet)

Anabolic steroids

A family of synthetic drugs derived from the male sex hormone testosterone and which are used to promote muscle growth

Pro-hormones

Substances (sometimes used by athletes) that don’t have a significant hormonal effect in themselves but which can be metabolised into active hormones once ingested

Fast-twitch muscle fibre

Also known as ‘white’ muscle fibre, which contracts two to three times faster than slow- twitch muscle fibre, producing 30-70 twitches per second. There are two basic types of fast-twitch fibre, type IIa and type IIb. The latter are the turbochargers in your muscular machinery, while both have the potential to become more powerful

Neural activity

Occurs when muscles are recruited (switched on) by electrical signals sent from the brain via the spinal cord (the reaction that then occurs within the muscles is chemical). The greater the neural stimulus, the greater the amount of muscle fibre recruited

Electromyography (EMG)

A technique that measures muscular activity in terms of (electrical) neural activity

Concentric muscular contraction

A muscular contraction where a muscle shortens to produce force