Skeletal muscle adaptations to growth and exercise.

Because of the structure of the body, humans are able to carry out a wide variety of different physical activities. This versatility is due primarily to the efficiency and design of the muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems. The skeletal muscles are the focal point of movement, and are designed to adapt during growth to fit the changing skeletal size, to hypertrophy as a result of overload to more easily handle a task, and to increase oxidative capacity as a result of endurance work so that a person can resist fatigue for increasing periods of time. The purpose of this article is to review these processes of adaptation.