ISSA CPT Applied Science, 25% of the NCCPT-CPT

A — Not this one. Chondrocytes are cartilage cells, not bone cells.

B — Correct. Osteoclasts resorb old bone and release its minerals; the balance between them and bone-building cells decides whether density rises or falls.

C — Not this one. Osteocytes are mature bone cells inside the matrix that sense mechanical strain; they don't do the bulk resorbing.

D — Not this one. Osteoblasts do the opposite: they lay down new bone matrix, and loading pushes the balance toward them.

A — Not this one. Blood glucose amounts to only a few grams at any moment, a tiny fraction of total carbohydrate stores.

B — Not this one. Liver glycogen is the tempting answer because it keeps blood glucose steady, but the store is much smaller than muscle's.

C — Correct. Skeletal muscle holds roughly 400–500 g of glycogen, about four times the liver's store, though it can fuel only the muscle that holds it.

D — Not this one. Adipose triglyceride is stored fat, not carbohydrate. It is the body's largest energy store overall, which is the trap.

A — Correct. Digesting, absorbing and storing food costs about 10% of daily energy expenditure, a little more after protein-rich meals.

B — Not this one. About 60% (or more) is resting metabolic rate, the largest component. Swapping TEF and RMR is the classic error.

C — Not this one. 40% does not fit TEF; for a very active person it might describe the activity share, but not the thermic effect of food.

D — Not this one. 25% is far above the usual TEF range; it overstates how much energy digestion burns.

A — Not this one. Shivering and vasoconstriction conserve and produce heat; they are cold responses.

B — Not this one. Vasodilation alone cannot dump enough heat during a long run; evaporation of sweat does most of the work, though high humidity slows it.

C — Not this one. Sweat evaporation is right, but vasoconstriction cuts skin blood flow and traps heat, so the pair is wrong.

D — Correct. In the heat the body sheds heat by sweating (cooling comes from evaporation) and by widening skin blood vessels to bring warm blood to the surface.

A — Not this one. The sartorius flexes and abducts the hip but rotates it externally, and it inserts on the medial tibia, not the IT band.

B — Not this one. The biceps femoris long head extends the hip and flexes the knee; it does not insert into the IT band.

C — Not this one. The gluteus maximus also pulls on the IT band but extends and externally rotates the hip.

D — Correct. The tensor fasciae latae runs from the front of the iliac crest into the IT band and flexes, abducts and internally rotates the hip.

A — Not this one. Maximal heart rate does not suddenly fall during a race; a fuel shortage explains the slowdown.

B — Correct. 'hitting the wall' late in a marathon is glycogen depletion. Fat can't be oxidized fast enough to hold the same pace, so speed drops.

C — Not this one. Marathon pace sits below the intensity where lactate piles up, and lactate is not what causes the late-race crash.

D — Not this one. Phosphocreatine powers only seconds of near-maximal effort and recovers quickly; it is not what runs out at mile 20.

A — Correct. Vessels in the worked muscles stay dilated and sympathetic tone drops after aerobic exercise, so peripheral resistance and blood pressure stay lower for hours.

B — Not this one. Sympathetic activity speeds the heart and raises pressure; the effect here comes from reduced sympathetic tone.

C — Not this one. A sustained rise in cardiac output would push blood pressure up, not down.

D — Not this one. Arteriolar constriction raises peripheral resistance and therefore blood pressure, the opposite of this effect.

A — Not this one. Carrying sensory signals to the CNS is the role of afferent neurons. A motor neuron carries signals out to muscle.

B — Not this one. The action potential is generated by ion channels in the neuron's membrane, not by the myelin around it.

C — Not this one. Neurotransmitter is released at the axon terminal; myelin does not take part in synaptic release.

D — Correct. Myelin insulates the axon so the impulse jumps between nodes of Ranvier (saltatory conduction), which greatly speeds transmission.

A — Not this one. A wider base improves stability. It is the opposite of what makes the client fall.

B — Not this one. A lower center of gravity increases stability, so dropping it is not the point of instability.

C — Not this one. Shifting mass over the middle of the stance foot moves the line of gravity back inside the base, which restores balance.

D — Correct. The body stays balanced while the line of gravity falls inside the base of support. Once it passes the edge, the body topples unless the base moves.

A — Correct. Post-activation potentiation is the short-lived rise in power after a near-maximal conditioning effort, used in complex training with a few minutes of rest.

B — Not this one. The stretch-shortening cycle is the rebound within a single jump, not an effect carried over from earlier squats.

C — Not this one. Autogenic inhibition, the Golgi tendon organ response to high tension, relaxes the muscle and lowers force, so it cannot explain a jump boost.

D — Not this one. Reciprocal inhibition is the antagonist relaxing when the agonist contracts; it has nothing to do with heavy squats priming a jump.

A — Not this one. Residual volume is the air left in the lungs after a maximal exhale; it never leaves the lungs.

B — Correct. Tidal volume is the air moved in one normal breath, roughly 500 mL at rest, and it rises during exercise.

C — Not this one. Vital capacity is the maximum you can exhale after a maximal inhale, not a normal breath.

D — Not this one. Minute ventilation is tidal volume times breaths per minute, a rate, not the volume of a single breath.

A — Not this one. Wider feet enlarge the base of support and make the plank easier, not harder.

B — Correct. Reaching the elbows forward lengthens the lever between the supports and the center of mass, so the abdominals have to resist more torque.

C — Not this one. Elbows under the shoulders is the standard starting position, the easier baseline.

D — Not this one. Dropping to the knees shortens the lever; it is a regression.

A — Correct. Type I fibers are red and oxidative, packed with mitochondria, capillaries and myoglobin, which makes them fatigue-resistant.

B — Not this one. Large motor neurons and high force output are Type IIx traits; crossing fiber attributes is the classic trap.

C — Not this one. Heavy reliance on fast glycolysis is a Type IIx trait. Type I fibers run mainly on aerobic metabolism.

D — Not this one. Fast myosin ATPase belongs to fast-twitch fibers; Type I are slow-twitch by definition.

A — Not this one. Rising then leveling off describes no part of the concentric force–velocity curve; force falls continuously as speed rises.

B — Correct. The faster a muscle shortens, the fewer cross-bridges are attached, so maximal force falls. Heavy loads move slowly for this reason.

C — Not this one. 'Faster means more force' confuses force with power (force × velocity), which peaks at moderate speeds.

D — Not this one. Force changes with velocity. A flat line contradicts the force–velocity curve.

A — Correct. Rate coding, firing active motor units faster, makes their twitches summate into stronger, fused contractions.

B — Not this one. The size principle recruits small units first and the largest last, so this reverses the order.

C — Not this one. Muscle spindles are stretch sensors; activating more of them does not produce force.

D — Not this one. Fibers obey the all-or-none law: once stimulated they contract fully, so 'partway' contraction is not how force is graded.

A — Not this one. Plyometric refers to the stretch-shortening cycle, fast and variable, not constant-speed work.

B — Not this one. Isotonic actions move a constant external load such as a dumbbell, and speed varies through the range.

C — Correct. Isokinetic actions occur at a constant joint speed, which needs a dynamometer that matches resistance to the force applied.

D — Not this one. Isometric actions involve no visible movement or change in muscle length, so speed is zero.

A — Not this one. Glycogenolysis is the reverse: breaking glycogen back down into glucose.

B — Not this one. Gluconeogenesis makes new glucose from non-carbohydrate sources such as lactate and amino acids.

C — Not this one. Glycolysis breaks glucose down to pyruvate for energy; it does not store anything.

D — Correct. Glycogenesis is building glycogen from glucose, driven by insulin after a carbohydrate meal.

A — Not this one. The vastus medialis is a single-joint knee extensor; it does not cross the hip.

B — Correct. The rectus femoris starts on the pelvis, so it crosses the hip as well as the knee and helps flex the hip.

C — Not this one. The vastus intermedius lies under the rectus femoris and also starts on the femur, so it cannot move the hip.

D — Not this one. The vastus lateralis is the largest quadriceps muscle, but it starts on the femur and crosses only the knee.

A — Correct. Heavy lifting imposes pressure loads that mainly thicken the ventricular wall, with little change in chamber size.

B — Not this one. Long-term heavy training does produce measurable, healthy structural changes in the heart.

C — Not this one. A larger chamber is the endurance (volume-load) adaptation. Mixing up the two forms of 'athlete's heart' is the classic error.

D — Not this one. Neither form of training shrinks the chamber or thins the wall; both enlarge the heart in different ways.

A — Not this one. Higher diastolic pressure would make ejection harder. Diastolic pressure normally stays about the same in aerobic exercise.

B — Not this one. Heart rate rises during exercise; it does not slow to allow more filling time.

C — Not this one. Raising peripheral resistance increases afterload and would reduce, not raise, stroke volume.

D — Correct. The muscle pump returns more blood, the extra filling stretches the ventricles, and by the Frank–Starling mechanism they contract harder and eject more per beat.