General Features of Muscles, Types and functions
Muscles have a range of functions from pumping blood and supporting movement to lifting heavy weights or giving birth. Read the article to know more about muscles.
Dr. Nivedita20 May, 2024
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General features of muscles demystifying the ‘motors’ of the body.
Muscles are a tissue which has a very important role in making us move around. It’s primarily composed of specialized cells and fibers which can generate body movements but muscles not only makes our bones move but the blood in our veins, the food in our stomach , the expulsion of the fetus during labor it’s all because of muscles.Grossly muscles of bundles of fibers like a collection of ropes
There are at least 3 types of muscle fibers in our body but skeletal muscles being the bulk of the content. Skeletal muscle fibers are bound together by loose areolar tissue known as endomysium. Then the bundles of these fibers are enclosed in another thicker layer of connective tissue known as perimysium to form muscle fascicles. These fascicles in turn are grouped together by a final outer covering of dense connective tissue known as perimysium. Cardiomyocytes are surrounded by fine, loose connective tissue , similar to endomysium seen in skeletal muscle albeit less organized.Histologically there is a lot of similarity and differences between different types of muscles.
Majoritively muscle fibers contain two types of microfilaments called actin and myosin which slide past each other creating power strokes which help create movement. Although all three skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscles vary in their structure which can be summarized through this table. These special attributes of muscles are due to their specialized structure of myofibrils and enable them to perform many important functions like generating force and movement, support of body stature and position, stability of joints, production of body heat. So long story short, muscles are very important and you should take good care of them by hitting the gym at least twice a week.General Features of Muscles FAQs
What type of adaptation muscles show ?
Muscle fibers show hypertrophy which simply means increase in size exploited by bodybuilders for obvious reasons.
Do muscles regenerate?
No muscles never regenerate that’s why conditions like muscular dystrophy leaves a person permanently disabled.
What is rigor mortis?
Rigor mortis is a postmortem change resulting in the stiffening of the body muscles due to chemical changes in their myofibrils. Rigor mortis helps in estimating the time since death as well to ascertain if the body had been moved after death.
Why do you shiver in the cold?
Shivering in cold is an adaptive mechanism of the body to prevent the body from going into hypothermia. Repeated contractions and relaxation of muscles generate heat which warms the body.
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