What is the Muscular System?

The muscular system is an organ system, involved majorly in the movement of the body. There are nearly 700 muscles that are connected to the bones of the skeletal system, which roughly half make up the human’s body weight. Every muscle is a different organ made of blood vessels, skeletal muscle tissue, nerves, and tendons. Muscle tissues are found in the heart, blood vessels, and digestive system.

There are three kinds of muscle tissues, namely cardiac, visceral and skeletal.

Cardiac Muscle 

This muscle is present only in the Heart and responsible for supplying blood all over the body. It is also an involuntary muscle since it cannot be controlled. When the brain signals adapt the rate of contraction, the cardiac muscle triggers by itself to contract. The natural pace of the heart is composed of cardiac muscle tissue and triggers other cardiac muscle cells to shrink.

The cardiac muscle cells are straight which reveals that they seem to have dark and light stripes when seen under a microscope. The protein fibres arrangement within the cells is responsible for these dark and light stripes.

Visceral Muscle 

These muscles are found in the organs like intestines, blood vessels, and stomach. It is the weakest of all muscle tissues and causes contraction of organs to pass substances through the organ. It is said to be an involuntary muscle because it cannot be controlled directly by the conscious mind, but controlled by the unconscious part of the brain. It is also known as a smooth muscle since it has a uniform and a smooth appearance when observed under the microscope.

Skeletal Muscle 

It is the voluntary muscle tissue that can be controlled in conscious condition. All physical actions that a human performs (e.g. walking, writing) needs skeletal muscle. The skeletal muscle is responsible for moving the body parts that are connected to the bone.

Skeletal muscles from many ancestor cells combine themselves together to produce a straight, long fibre. These skeletal muscles are strong just like cardiac muscles. The name is derived from the known fact that these are connected to the skeleton in one region at least.

Also Read: Sliding Filament Theory

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