Muscle: They Do a Body Good!

The muscle in the body is a form of contractile tissue and is just of the four major types of tissues. The other three types are nervous tissue, connective tissue and epithelium. When muscles contract parts of the body are moved which assists with moving substances in the body.

There are also 3 general types of muscle in the body:

1.Smooth muscle also called involuntary and found in the structures of blood vessels, intestines and throat.

2.Cardiac muscle is a specialized muscle found only in the heart.

3.Skeletal muscle also, called the voluntary muscle, anchored by tendons to the bone it is used to effect motion.

The skeletal muscle is divided into 2 subtypes:

1.Type l, called slow oxidative, red or slow twitch. Type l can carry more oxygen and sustain activity such as aerobics. This muscle is dense with capillaries, mitochondria and myoglobin, which gives the tissue characteristic color.

2.Type ll, often-called white, glycolytic or fast switch this muscle is less dense in comparison with Type l with the aspects of mitochondria and myoglobin. It contracts faster and with more force than Type l but can only sustain short bursts of activity before a build up of lactic acid interferes with the muscles contractions and results in pain.

Muscle is composed of muscle cells also known as muscle fibers and within the cells are myofibrils. These myofibrils contain sarcomeres, which are composed of actin and myosin. The Individual muscle cells are lined with endomysium but the muscle cells are bound together by perimysium into bundles called fascicles then these bundles are grouped together to form muscle that’s lined by epimysium.

In essence muscle spindles are distributed throughout the muscles and provide feedback sensory information to the central nervous system.
Skeletal muscle is arranged in groups and perfect examples would be the biceps brachii. Connected by the body’s tendons through processes of the skeleton. In contrast, smooth muscle occurs at various scales in nearly every organ, from the skin to the blood vessels and the digestive tract.

Our bodies need muscles to perform the most basic actions throughout the course of a day. Be good to your body, eat well and exercise right, your body will be good to you too.