Muscles are the main thing in our body as it helps function daily. From smiling to standing up, muscles help us in every aspect of the movement. Muscles also assist in heartbeats, respiration, and digestion. You will be surprised to know that muscles also control our body temperature and vision, which is entirely irrelevant to its primary functions.
Read further to learn more about our body’s muscular system.
The muscular system consists of almost 40% of a human’s body weight, with the gluteus maximus as the heaviest muscle present in the hips. An average human being has approximately 600 muscles that work together to function the entire body.
Contents
Three Main Types Of Muscles
- Skeletal Muscles
These are the only kind of muscles which you can control deliberately. These specific muscles attach to your bones, which allow you to move. Any activity which is undertaken by any person intentionally requires muscles. For example, writing, running, and chewing.
- Smooth Muscles
Visceral muscles is another name for smooth muscles. These muscles are the ones that are present in the lining of organs and blood vessels, like the stomach. Visceral muscles might be fragile, but it plays a crucial role in moving food in the digestional path and supervising blood circulation by blood vessels. You cannot deliberately control smooth muscles.
- Cardiac Muscles
These kinds of muscles are only found in the heart and assist in pumping blood in the entire body. These muscles generate their contractions, which develop their heartbeat. Messages from nervous systems overpower the pace of contractions. Cardiac muscles are strong and sturdy, and once again, you cannot control these deliberately.
Functions Of Muscular Systems
Makes Movement Easy
The muscular system’s primary function is to enable movement. While contraction of muscles, they include total and superfine exercises.
Total Movements Include:
- Walking
- Swimming
- Running
Superfine Movements Include:
- Facial Expression
- Writing
- Speaking
The smaller muscles are the real culprits for such activities. However, movements are reflexive, like snatching your hands away after getting pricked by thorns or from any origin of heat.
Stability
Muscles expand over joints and include joint steadiness. Muscles in the shoulders and knee joints are crucial for staying steady and not falling over. Muscles present in the pelvis, abdomen, and back, also known as core muscles, make the body steady and make weightlifting easy.
Circulation
The heart is also a muscle that pumps the blood to circulate it in the entire body. The heart’s movements occur on their own, and so you cannot control these muscles.
Smooth muscles present in the veins and arteries play a significant role in the transportation of blood throughout the body. Muscles supervise circulations in the case of dehydration and blood loss, and blood pressure. They stretch to boost blood flow, while intense activities, like working out, because at this time our body requires a lot of oxygen.
Posture
Muscles like skeletal muscles are responsible for keeping the body in the correct position while standing, sitting, or lying down. This is called posture. A perfect posture is on flexible and sturdy muscles. Tight, stiff, or weak muscles result in misalignment or poor posture of the body. Having poor posture for a long time might lead to muscle aches in the neck, shoulders, and back in the future.
Respiration
The diaphragm muscle is in the respiratory system. But, what is it?
It is a dorm-like muscle, which is present below the lungs. When the diaphragm shrinks, it goes downward, resulting in the chest cavity becoming sold up because the lungs are full of air. When the lungs come back to their standard size, it pushes the oxygen out.
Urination
The urinary system also requires muscles like smooth and skeletal muscles. Organs that require these muscles are below.
- Kidneys
- Penis/Vagina
- Ureters
- Urethra
- Bladder
- Prostate
The muscles work together to release and hold urine in the bladder. Urinary difficulties while holding the urine in the bladder result from damage in the nerves, which carry messages to the muscles.
Temperature Regulation
Supervision of the average body temperature is a crucial part of the muscular system. About 85% of the heat stimulated by the human body is from the contraction of the muscles. When the human body temperature falls below normal levels, the skeletal muscles help boost the body heat. Shivering is the result of the same.
The average temperature recovery can happen by the relaxation of the smooth muscles present in the blood vessels. This activity releases extra heat and blood flow.
Other Functions:
- It Protects The Organs
- It Helps Childbirth
- It Improves Vision
- Digestion
Muscles benefit you only if you eat healthily and work out. But if you work out in excess, you might get sore from all the working out. But if the pain in the muscles intensifies, you must visit your doctor as it can be something severe. A few of them are below:
- Muscular dystrophy
- Myopathy
- Fibromyalgia
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
Conclusion
After looking at the points mentioned earlier, it is apparent that the muscular system is very complex and vital for the human body. It almost controls all the movements and crucial functions of the body, like breathing, digestion, heartbeats, etc.
Have a word with your doctor if you are suffering from any one of these. They can assist you with prevention methods and methods to manage everything. It is crucial to care about your health as no one will ever come up and do it for you.
