Logan Steele
The human body has over 600 muscles, accounting for around 40% of a person's weight. These muscles are essential for movement, generating body heat, and making breathing, circulation, and digestion possible. They perform two types of movements: voluntary movements that are consciously controlled, and involuntary movements that happen automatically. Skeletal muscles, cardiac muscles, and smooth muscles are the three main types of muscle tissue in the body, each with distinct functions and locations.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of muscles in the human body | 600+ |
| Types of muscles | Skeletal, smooth, cardiac |
| Functions | Movement, stability, Posture, Circulation, Digestion |
| Control | Voluntary, involuntary |
| Location | Arms, legs, back, abdomen, buttocks, heart, blood vessels, eyes, uterus |
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What You'll Learn
Movement
The human body has over 600 muscles, making up around 30% to 40% of our total body mass. These muscles are responsible for a wide range of movements, from the voluntary to the involuntary.
Voluntary movements are actions that we consciously control, such as flicking a thumb to scroll through articles on a phone or sprinting around a track. These movements are controlled by our nervous system. Skeletal muscles are the voluntary muscles that connect to our bones and allow us to perform various functions. They are the most common type of muscle in our body, comprising around 30% to 40% of our body weight. Skeletal muscles contract in response to stimuli, allowing us to move bones and perform different actions. These muscles are responsible for sustaining body posture and position, maintaining body temperature, storing nutrients, and stabilising joints.
In contrast, involuntary movements occur automatically without conscious thought. Cardiac and smooth muscles are examples of involuntary muscles controlled by our autonomic nervous system. Cardiac muscles, found only in the heart, are responsible for pumping blood throughout the body. Visceral muscles, another type of involuntary muscle, are the weakest of all muscle tissues. They are found inside organs like the stomach and intestines and help move substances through the organs.
The muscular system is responsible for the movement of the human body. It works through muscle contractions, which are of three types: Type I or slow oxidative fibres are small fibres with low glycogen content and a low rate of fatigue, making them suitable for endurance activities like maintaining posture. Type IIa or fast oxidative fibres have intermediate fatigue rates and are suited for moderate actions like walking. Type IIb or fast glycolytic fibres are fast-twitching fibres.
The prime mover or agonist is the muscle that provides the primary force for an action. Antagonist muscles oppose the prime mover by providing resistance or reversing the movement. Synergist muscles assist the prime mover, while stabilisers keep bones immobile and maintain posture.
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Circulation
The circulatory system is a complex network of organs, blood vessels, and blood that work together to deliver oxygen, nutrients, and hormones to the body's cells, muscles, and organs. This system is also responsible for removing waste products, such as carbon dioxide, from the body. At the heart of this system is the heart itself, a muscular organ that pumps blood through the intricate network of arteries, veins, and capillaries.
Arteries are muscular tubes that carry oxygenated blood away from the heart to all parts of the body. The aorta, the body's largest artery, branches off into smaller arteries, which then branch into arterioles and eventually into capillaries. Capillaries are small, thin blood vessels that allow oxygen, nutrients, and waste products to pass between the blood and the body's cells. They connect the arteries and veins, with thin walls that facilitate the exchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and waste products.
Veins are blood vessels that return oxygen-depleted blood to the heart. As veins get closer to the heart, they become larger. Two central veins, the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava, deliver blood to the heart. Veins in the legs have valves to prevent blood from flowing backward.
The heart, a muscular organ, is an integral part of the circulatory system. It pumps blood through the network of blood vessels, ensuring a continuous flow of blood to all parts of the body. The heart's muscular walls contract and relax, working together to pump blood and maintain circulation. The right and left sides of the heart work in tandem, with blood flowing continuously to the heart, lungs, and body.
Additionally, the circulatory system includes the coronary circulation, which provides blood supply to the heart muscle itself. This system begins near the aorta with the right and left coronary arteries, ensuring that the heart receives the oxygen and nutrients it needs to function properly.
The circulatory system is a vital network that relies on the heart's muscular contractions to deliver essential nutrients and oxygen to the body while removing waste products. This intricate system ensures the proper functioning of the body's cells, tissues, and organs.
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Digestion
The human body's digestive system is responsible for breaking down food into small enough parts so that the body can absorb and use them to build and nourish cells and provide energy. This process involves the muscular system. The muscular system works in conjunction with the digestive system to move food through the gastrointestinal tract, break it down into smaller pieces, and extract nutrients from it.
The process of digestion begins in the mouth, where the muscles of the jaw and tongue break down food into smaller pieces through chewing and swallowing. The muscles of the throat then move the food down the oesophagus to the stomach. In the stomach, muscles produce churning motions to break food down further and mix it with digestive juices, such as stomach acid and enzymes. The stomach muscles also relax to accept large volumes of food and liquid.
From the stomach, the partially digested food moves into the small intestine. Here, the muscles of the small intestine mix the food with digestive juices from the pancreas, liver, and intestine. The small intestine completes the breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats with the help of these digestive juices. The walls of the small intestine absorb water and nutrients into the bloodstream.
As food continues through the digestive tract, waste products from the small intestine move into the large intestine. The large intestine absorbs water and changes the waste from liquid into stool. Peristalsis, a process involving muscle contractions, helps move the stool into the rectum and eventually out of the body through the anus during a bowel movement.
Stress and certain clothing choices, such as tight-fitting garments, can affect digestion by restricting the movement of the abdominal cavity and disrupting the smooth functioning of the digestive process. Yoga and abdominal massages can help calm the sympathetic nervous system and improve digestion.
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Stability
Stabilizer muscles are those that contribute to joint stiffness and show an early onset of activation in response to perturbation. They are tasked with stabilising the body and extremities during multi-plane movements, while primary mover muscles are responsible for moving the load. For example, during a bench press, the pectoralis major and triceps brachii are the primary movers, while the rear delts act as stabiliser muscles. Similarly, during pull-ups, the triceps are the primary movers, while they act as stabiliser muscles during bench presses.
The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles that surround the shoulder joint and help stabilise it. The three main stabiliser complexes in the body are located in the shoulders, hips, and trunk. These stabiliser complexes are essential for maintaining healthy joint function and biomechanics.
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Breathing
The diaphragm is the main muscle used for breathing. This dome-shaped muscle separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. When the diaphragm contracts, it increases the length and diameter of the chest cavity, expanding the lungs and drawing air into them. When the diaphragm relaxes, the elastic recoil of the lungs causes the thoracic cavity to contract, forcing air out.
The intercostal muscles are another important group of respiratory muscles. These muscles are attached between the ribs and help manipulate the width of the rib cage. There are three layers of intercostal muscles: external, internal, and innermost. The external intercostal muscles are most important for respiration, raising the rib cage and assisting in inhalation. The internal intercostal muscles are recruited during active expiration, pulling the ribs downwards and inward, further reducing the size of the thoracic cavity.
The abdominal muscles are also involved in breathing. During expiration, these muscles contract, raising abdominal pressure and pushing a relaxed diaphragm against the lungs, causing air to be pushed out. This is particularly important during physical activity, when breathing becomes more active and forceful exhalation is required.
Other muscles that contribute to respiration include the sternocleidomastoid, pectoralis major and minor, serratus anterior, levator labii superioris alaeque nasi, and various neck and back muscles. The muscles of the face, mouth, and pharynx also play a role in breathing by controlling the lips, tongue, soft palate, and other structures.
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