The Muscular System

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The Muscular System
The muscular system is comprised of the total number of the over 650 muscles in the body that work to maintain: posture through steady and constant contractions, generate heat through cell metabolism and, move the skeleton. Since this primary of moving skeletal bones, constituting the walls of hollow organs, and enabling heart beats and rhythm; it is no surprise, that humans would not be alive without the muscular system (Health Advisor, 2017). The muscular system is made up of three types of muscles or muscle tissue:

1. Cardiac muscle: This is an involuntary muscle, which makes up the walls of the heart and creates the constant, and rhythmic pulsing experienced, as blood gets pumped to various parts of the body from the signals sent from the brain. The cardiac muscle is also responsible for the electrical impulses that cause contractions in the heart. Certain hormones and stimuli from the nervous system affect such impulses however: For the increase in our heart rates when we are afraid or frightened.

2. Skeletal muscle: This is responsible for movement in our bodies. As such, there are more than 600 skeletal muscles, making up approximately 40 percent of the entire body weight. As the nervous system signals the muscles to contract, specific groups of muscles engage in 'teamwork' to move the skeleton. Although humans do not need to concentrate on specific muscles when moving, and the movements and signals are for most part involuntary; they still require conscious internal systems' effort for this to happen however.

3. Smooth or Visceral muscle: This type of muscle is abundant in, and makes up the walls of blood vessels, hollow organs, and respiratory passageways. Very much like the cardiac muscle, the smooth muscle is involuntary and contracts in response to impulses from the nerve and stimuli. Comprising of wavelike movements, this facilitates movement through the body of things including, but not limited to: food through the stomach, and urine through the bladder (Dalakas, 2015; Health Advisor, 2017; Live Science, 2017).

Movement Dynamics
Muscle movement occurs when nerve impulses or signals produce electrical changes in muscle cells, at which time calcium is released into the cells causing short twitches in the muscles. Adverse conditions can lead to problems however with the junctions or synapses, between the cells and can lead to neuromuscular diseases. Electromyography(EMG) is often used to diagnose muscular disorders (Dalakas, 2015; Live Science, 2017).

Pathology: Diseases of the Muscular ...