THE ANSWER ⬇️
The muscular system consists of various types of muscle that each play a crucial role in the function of the body.
Muscles allow a person to move, speak, and chew. They control heartbeat, breathing, and digestion. Other seemingly unrelated functions, including temperature regulation and vision, also rely on the muscular system.
Keep reading to discover much more about the muscular system and how it controls the body.
How the muscular system works
The muscles account for around 40 percent of a person’s weight with the largest muscle in the body being the gluteus maximus in the buttocks.
The muscular system contains more than 600muscles that work together to enable the full functioning of the body.
There are 3 types of muscles in the body:
Skeletal muscle
Skeletal muscles are the only muscles that can be consciously controlled. They are attached to bones, and contracting the muscles causes movement of those bones.
Any action that a person consciously undertakes involves the use of skeletal muscles. Examples of such activities include running, chewing, and writing.
Smooth muscle
Smooth muscle lines the inside of blood vessels and organs, such as the stomach, and is also known as visceral muscle.
It is the weakest type of muscle but has an essential role in moving food along the digestive tract and maintaining blood circulation through the blood vessels.
Smooth muscle acts involuntarily and cannot be consciously controlled.
Cardiac muscle
Located only in the heart, cardiac muscle pumps blood around the body. Cardiac muscle stimulates its own contractions that form our heartbeat. Signals from the nervous system control the rate of contraction. This type of muscle is strong and acts involuntarily.
Eleven main functions of the muscular system
The main functions of the muscular system are as follows:
1. Mobility
The muscular system’s main function is to allow movement. When muscles contract, they contribute to gross and fine movement.
Gross movement refers to large, coordinated motions and includes:
walking
running
swimming
Fine movement involves smaller movements, such as:
writing
speaking
facial expressions
The smaller skeletal muscles are usually responsible for this type of action.
Most muscle movement of the body is under conscious control. However, some movements are reflexive, such as withdrawing a hand from a source of heat.
2. Stability
Muscle tendons stretch over joints and contribute to joint stability. Muscle tendons in the knee joint and the shoulder joint are crucial in stabilization.
The core muscles are those in the abdomen, back, and pelvis, and they also stabilize the body and assist in tasks, such as lifting weights.
3. Posture
Skeletal muscles help keep the body in the correct position when someone is sitting or standing. This is known as posture.
Good posture relies on strong, flexible muscles. Stiff, weak, or tight muscles contribute to poor posture and misalignment of the body.
Long-term, bad posture leads to joint and muscle pain in the shoulders, back, neck, and elsewhere.
4. Circulation
The heart is a muscle that pumps blood throughout the body. The movement of the heart is outside of conscious control, and it contracts automatically when stimulated by electrical signals.
Smooth muscle in the arteries and veins plays a further role in the circulation of blood around the body. These muscles maintain blood pressure and circulation in the event of blood loss or dehydration.
They expand to increase blood flow during times of intense exercise when the body requires more oxygen.
5. Respiration
Breathing involves the use of the diaphragm muscle.
The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle located below the lungs. When the diaphragm contracts, it pushes downward, causing the chest cavity to get bigger. The lungs then fill with air. When the diaphragm muscle relaxes, it pushes air out of the lungs.
When someone wants to breath more deeply, it requires help from other muscles, including those in the abdomen, back, and neck.
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