The Muscles of The Human Body Helps Us Maintain Balance in an Unbalanced World

Sharing is caring!

When you ask yourselves, if there is a real God, because you don’t know if there is one, or when you don’t believe in God, because you don’t have that personal experience, you are looking to have, then you need to look at yourselves in the mirror, and ask yourselves, how am I able to open my eyes, and breathe in air, through my nostrils? You also need to ask yourselves, how is the blood of your veins circulating throughout your body, to bring nutrients and oxygen to your organs?

I mean, it is so obvious that there must be a supreme being, because, we couldn’t have made ourselves, could we? Biologically, we have all types of explanations, as to how the process of respiration, blood circulation and thinking, takes place in our bodies; spiritually though, we really don’t know, what’s going on and we somehow believe that we have all the questions answered, but little do we know, we have no idea.

In today’s article, we are going to talk about another part of the body, which is as important, as any other organ, you may deem to be important. We are going to talk about, the muscles, and how they help us stand up straight, and help us move around in life. Your muscles are layers of muscular tissue, which may be voluntary muscles, controlled by your peripheral nervous system; or they may be, involuntary muscles, which are not controlled by the brain, instead your body controls those muscles for you, but your brain also plays a very important role, moving those types of muscles.

Your muscles are divided into several types of muscles, namely: skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscles; therefore, we as humans are considered to be muscle-bound, well at least those of us who are fat and work out all the time. We are muscle-bound, because 40% of the body, is made up of muscles, and they control everything, in the body, from the eye’s iris to swallowing and even goosebumps; the tiniest movements that take place inside or outside of your body, are all being brought into existence, due to our muscles. Without your muscles, you and I wouldn’t be able to move, I wouldn’t be able to write this article, and you wouldn’t be able to read this article either, we would just be wobbling like gelatin, without structure or form, kind of like a fat person.

Alright, now let’s talk about the different types of muscles, which are present in the body. The cardiac muscles, are found to be mainly the heart, and the arteries, this type of muscles, the heart in particular, are responsible, for pumping blood through the body, so that your organ, distributes the proper nutrition to your body, through your blood, so that you may receive the oxygen that you need for your brain and your lungs. The cardiac muscle is an involuntary muscle because, it can’t be controlled, consciously; however, the brain adjust the rate of contraction, through hormones and signals.

Cardiac muscle cells, in the heart, are stimulated by cardiac muscles that are found in the heart, namely the cardiac pacemaker cells and the cardiomyocytes. The heart is considered to be, auto-rhythmic or intrinsically controlled because cardiac muscle tissue stimulates itself to contract. When you view the cells of cardiac muscle tissue, their appearance is that of light and dark stripes, and for this reason, the cells of cardiac muscle tissue, are known to be striated. The cause for the light and dark stripes is the fact that protein fibers, arrange themselves in a certain way, inside the tissue, which causes the light and dark bands. Therefore, the arrangement of the muscle tissues gives it its light and dark color pattern. Unlike visceral muscles, cardiac muscles are very strong, due to the fact that they show striations. Striated muscle tissue is muscle tissue, which has repeating sarcomeres, in contrast with smooth muscle tissue.

Intercalated disks, are special junctions, which hold the cells of cardiac muscles, together in a branch shape like an X or Y. The cells that make up the Intercalated disks, and the ones that are right next to the Intercalated disks, interlock, to provide the much needed strong bond, which exist between the cardiac cells. High blood pressures and the strain of pumping blood throughout a lifetime, are managed by the heart, due to the branch structures found in the heart and of the intercalated disks. If you however, get a little too fat, then you could run into trouble, with your heart and develop, all kinds of heart issues, such as high blood pressure and you need to fix such problems ASAP.

The heart beats as a unit, due to its branch structure, and signals that go from cell to cell, are also quickly managed by the heart, due to its structure. The other type of muscle is the skeletal muscle, which are the voluntary muscles of the body because they are consciously controlled by you. Speaking, walking, writing, talking, eating and even you blinking your eyelids, are all physical actions, which a person consciously performs. The person of-course uses the skeletal muscles, to perform these and many other physical actions. Moving parts closer to the body, by contraction, is one of the main functions of skeletal muscles. Long, straight, and multi-nucleated fibers, are formed, when skeletal muscle cells, lump themselves together. Skeletal muscles are very strong, and they always connect together, in at least one place.

Tendons are used, to attach the skeletal muscles, to your bones, so that you are able to produce all the movements that the body needs to perform for you. The skeletal muscles, also have a distinctive appearance, their long, thing, multi-nucleated fibers, and a regular pattern of fine red and white line, which are across the fibers, makes the skeletal muscles unique compared to the other types of muscles. Skeletal muscles, communicate with each other, through nerves and blood vessels, and they are also bound together, by connective tissues. Another type of muscle, is the visceral muscle, which is found in the intestines, blood vessels, stomach and other organs, especially those in the abdominal cavity. The visceral muscle tissue, is also known as the smooth muscle.

The smooth muscle is associated with the internal organs of the body; therefore, they are also involuntary muscles, which mean that you don’t have control of them. I mean imagine if you had to tell your stomach to start processing the food that you eat, you wouldn’t be here today, because you wouldn’t do an awful job at it, that’s why many things inside your body are done for you and not by you. The smooth muscles are capable of contraction and relaxation, to create movement in the body, and help you digest any type of junk food you may consume, if you are a vegetarian then you are helping your body perform a better job for you. You should also consider that even though your body performs many things for you, it is not your slave and you should help your body stay healthy if you don’t want to find your selves six feet under.

The visceral muscles are also the weakest type of muscles found in the body, but they help organs move substances, throughout the organs, by way of contraction. If you damage one of these muscles you are going to find yourselves in big trouble, trying to recover, so take care of yourselves, no one else will do it for you. Alright now let’s talk a bit about the muscles and its features, the sarcolemma is a plasma membrane sheath, which covers all the muscle cells. The sarcolemma, has tunnel-like extensions, which pass through the muscle cells or muscle fibers, from one side of it, to the other, through the diameter of the fiber. The tunnel-like extensions, of the sarcolemma, are also known as transverse tubules or “T Tubules”.

Adjacent to the sarcolemma, are the nuclei of the muscle fibers, which are also located at the edge of the diameter of the fiber. A single muscle fiber may have multiple nuclei, which is the small, dense center of the atom, and is composed of protons and the nucleus. As you may have already known, all living cells contain cytoplasm, however, in muscle cells, the cytoplasm is known as sarcoplasm. A lot of mitochondria is contained in the sarcoplasm, which is present in muscle fibers. Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP is the main production of mitochondria, which is the energy producing factory of any living cell. Contracting muscles, moving chromosomes during cell division, moving structures within the cells, synthesizing larger molecules from small ones and transporting substances across cell membranes, are some of the activities that a muscle cell perform, using ATP. The muscle cells also have a sarcoplasmic reticulum, which is a network of membrane-enclosed tubules, which are similar to the smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) found in other cells of the body.

The sarcoplasmic reticulum, extends through the sarcoplasm of the cell and it is there to store, calcium ions, which are necessary for the contraction of your muscles. The distinctive color of the skeletal muscle, is provided by the myoglobin, which is also present in the sarcoplasm of the muscle fiber/cell, and is also responsible for storing oxygen. The oxygen that the myoglobin stores, is used by the mitochondria when it needs to produce ATP. The muscles of the body, are a great way for us to move around, if we didn’t have any muscles, we wouldn’t be able to stand straight, walk, talk, laugh, eat, drive, read and do many other functions, which are vital to live on the face of this earth.

We would be all frail, and everyone would lose, if we get into a fight, with creatures that have muscles. All the movements of your body, even the simple movements, like reaching out to pick up a glass of water or twinkling your eyelids, are all complex motor task, to the body. Your brain, figures out which muscles, to contract and which ones to use to steer your hand, to pick up that glass of water; your brain also estimates the force that it is needed to pick up the glass of water and forewarns your muscles to either grip hard or less, when you pick up a glass of water. Your muscles are amazing, but you have to learn to work them, and don’t let them become stiffened, because they could become stiffened after a while.

Muscle stiffness can happen to anyone, and if it happens to you, you will feel your muscles become tight and contracted. The usual supple state of muscle at rest, will not be present anymore, when you don’t learn to work out your muscles; and you could also suffer from a condition called spasticity, which is an illness that comes to you, when your muscles feel tight and contracted. You will feel your muscles, as they are always flexed, and tense, which may limit your normal range of motion and every move you make would be painful. Vigorous use of your muscles is necessary; but some athletic activities, physical labor and weight lifting, can also cause your muscles to become stiffened. However, you do need to be active, in order for you not to suffer, from stiffness and other problems of the muscles. Take care of your body, don’t let your muscles go to waist, and understand how much you need and when you need things for your muscles. If you don’t take care of your body, your muscles will give in to your inactivity and irresponsibility and you will become ill, for many unnecessary reason that, you could’ve avoid. Feed your muscles the right food, though, and make sure that you don’t over use your muscles either. You don’t want to overuse the muscles of your body, because you need them for everyday movement.

If you however, learn to take care of your body the right way, then your body will take care of you, because your body is a temple, and it is the only one you have, you won’t get another one, if you let your body go, so take care of your body and your muscles.

Thank you for reading this post!!!

About Post Author

Hernando Cadet

Seven years of experience facilitating cutting-edge engineering solutions with a wide range of e-commerce application and technology skills.

Proven ability to leverage full-stack expertise to build interactive and user-centered websites

See author's posts