Different Types of Muscles Have Different Functions

Muscles-Part 1

There's more to muscles than what's walking around on the beach.

Different types of muscles have different functions.

There are three types of muscle, striated, smooth and cardiac. All three have some things in common. Their contraction and relaxation creates mechanical energy that translates to movement of the body and internal body functions. All muscles have cells arranged in groups of fibers, imbedded in connective tissue and bound together by intercellular substance.

Striated muscles usually spend the most time with in an effort to be, as it's known in Hawaii, "luking goood." Striated muscle tissue consists of bundles of fibers called fasiculi made up of long nucleated cells with myofibrils in alternating dark and light bands that give them a striped appearance. Groups of fibers lie parallel to each other and each is enclosed in a membrane called perimysium. Each complete muscle is encased in a sheath called epimysium which is encased in sheets of connective tissue, deep fascia, that separate individual muscles. These are the muscles of the skeleton, eyelids, tongue and soft palate, eye, scalp, pharynx and upper esophagus. These are the voluntary muscles and are stimulated by impulses from fibers of the cerebrospinal nerves. If nerves of these muscles are severed, the muscle will atrophy and paralysis results.

The voluntary actions of the skeletal muscles is involved in the control, posture and movements of the body such as walking, talking, moving the fingers, swallowing, movements of the eyes, and the voluntary action of the abdominal muscles for respiration and elimination.

Skeletal muscle have the ability to contract and extend, to stretch and twist, the ability to regain their original shape and size after being stretched and to respond to a stimulus. The usual muscle stimulus consists of a nerve impulse resulting from a change in the internal or external environment due to a chemical, electrical, mechanical or thermal influence. A weak stimulus will produce a weak muscle contraction involving only a few fibers. If the stimulus is strong the reaction may involve all the fibers of the muscle.