The greater part of the humanity doesn’t know how their body and organism really functions. Learning at least the most essential part of this information is very important as this knowledge could help everyone lead a more healthy life. By knowing how our organs function and what our organism consists of, we will be more able to improve the way we feel during our daily activities.
This is why, we would like to share with our readers some information, devoted to this important topic. In the following couple of paragraphs, we are going to describe the main function and features of one of the most important parts of our body – the muscles. If you are willing to know more about your muscular system, read the following article to find out.
What is the Muscular System?
Surprisingly very few people know that nearly half of our body mass comes from pure muscle mass. In other words, if we separate all the systems in our organism and classify them by body mass, the muscular system will prove itself as the largest one. Believe it or not but it consists of more than 650 muscles as all of them are working together. The anatomy scientists divide them into three different categories. So, according to the medical specialists, human muscles are: skeletal, cardiac and smooth. Each of these groups have specific functions which keep our organism alive.
What Does the Muscular System Do?
As you may imagine if we didn’t have muscles our body wouldn’t be able to move. In addition, we wouldn’t have be able to excrete waste, walk, breathe or even have our heart beating without the muscle system. Actually, conducted research shows that most of the people are usually aware of the functions of skeletal muscles. However, they still don’t have enough information about the rest of the body muscles and their role in our live.
The truth is that every muscle generates heat from their movements. This helps our body to maintain it normal temperature. Also, muscles pump lymph, the fluid that surrounds cells, throughout your body. Final, but not less important is the fact that the muscular system helps us maintain our posture.
Skeletal Muscles
In medicine, there is another term which refers to the skeletal muscles. Usually, specialists call them voluntary muscles due to the fact their movement can be consciously controlled by people to help them move. The connection between them and the bones is called tendon. The interesting thing about these muscles is that every time they contract, they pull and shorten two of your bones together.
For example, flexor muscles cause the joint to bend, while extensor muscles cause it to straighten. There is also a tissue that keeps the bones together and it is called ligament. Thanks to its function, the bones don’t separate each time when they are forced to move by the skeletal muscles.
Smooth Muscles
The medical term referring to this type of muscles is involuntary muscles. Therefore, they cannot be consciously controlled. On the contrary, they are controlled by the autonomic nervous system, and found and in around your lymph, intestinal and circulatory systems. In addition, unlike the skeleton muscles, the smooth muscles are not attached to bones. Thanks to this, they can move slowly and stay contracted for longer time periods. A very important function of these muscles is their ability to push food through the digestive system, and to constrict and dilate blood vessels.
Cardiac Muscles
This is the muscle tissue which can be found in and around the heart. Cardiac muscles allow it to pump blood into the arteries and thus to maintain the live within our body.
How Does the Muscular System Work?
Basically, the working process of the muscles in our body happens as it follows. First, the brain sends signals through the nervous system. These signals trigger the muscles’ neurons which results in their contraction. After that, the nerve impulses cause the muscle cells to contract. The obvious effect is that the heart beats and the left arm bends for example.
