--- title: Muscles: getting stronger and getting fitter — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Muscles: getting stronger and getting fitter», a lesson of the medicine course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: You have more than 600 muscles, not just the ones you show off in the mirror: they move your legs, hold up your back, let yo --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/) / Muscles: getting stronger and getting… # Muscles: getting stronger and getting fitter Lesson 38 of the medicine course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/0/) — You have more than 600 muscles, not just the ones you show off in the mirror: they move your legs, hold up your back, let you breathe and blink, and your heart is a muscle too. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/1/) — Muscles get stronger by working and then repairing during rest, and the heart and lungs get fitter the same way: little and often, not one giant effort. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/2/) — Think of learning kick-ups: 3 on the first day, wobbly and wild; a month of practice in the garden later, 30, because your brain and muscles have learned to work together. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/3/) — Strength (how hard a muscle can push) and stamina (how long you can keep going) are different, and both fade if you stop, so keep moving all year, even in the holidays. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/4/) — The body has more than 600 muscles, and in adults muscle makes up about 40% of body weight. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/5/) — With regular training the heart pumps more blood per beat and the muscles grow more tiny blood vessels and get better at using oxygen. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/6/) — Fitness builds from many small, regular sessions, not from one huge session. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/7/) — Skill is the brain and muscles learning together; practice makes the nerves time each movement better. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/8/) — A game controller trains the thumbs, not the legs; professional footballers train most days for years and often run about 10 km in a match. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/9/) — Muscles grow stronger while resting after work; far too much of the same exercise every day leads to overuse pain. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/10/) — Coached strength training with good technique is safe for children and does not stunt growth; heavy maximum lifts are not for children. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/11/) — Children get plenty of protein from normal food; extra protein shakes don't build muscle by themselves. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/12/) — Everyone has the six-pack muscle; whether you can see it depends mostly on the fat over it and on age, and you can't burn fat from one spot with sit-ups. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/13/) — Strength is how much force a muscle makes; stamina is how long you can keep going; they are trained differently, and stamina is built by things like running, swimming or cycling. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/14/) — Fitness fades when you stop training, but it comes back faster than it took to build the first time. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/38-muscles-getting-stronger-and-getting-fitter/15/) — Before puberty, girls and boys have about the same strength, and both get stronger with practice. - ← previous: [Warming up, stitches and cramp](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/37-warming-up-stitches-and-cramp/) - next →: [Sore the next day, stretching and rest days](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/39-sore-the-next-day-stretching-and-rest-days/) - ↑ back to [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/)