Muscular System Guide

How Does the Muscular System?

The Almighty has given the tiny body to us as a baby, thanks to our dads and moms.To receive us they have to contribute their share of two cents. Moms who receive the bounty in their womb develop us in the form of fetus for almost 9 months more or less.This is where the baby or the budding humanity receives the fully functional muscular system. How we develop this muscular system to be optimally healthy is our concern all through our life time! In South Indian homes, on alternative days the babies were given an oil bath and massage all over the body. This action allows the skin to be well lubricated, supple, resilient and healthy. When the babies reach one year, the oil bath regimen is done once a week, especially every Saturday when the parents are free and available to help their children take their bath. This takes care of the muscular system from childhood. Even the adults follow this practice. This prevents many an ache and pain in adult life.

This muscular system is a weighty issue. Half of your total body weight is contributed by the muscular system. That is why people often gain weight, instead of losing weight when they begin to exercise regularly, particularly that involves strength training.

Do you realize that without the muscular system the body cannot move? The very basic function of the muscular system is to move the various parts of the body by voluntary and essential involuntary movements. For example, If you desire to stretch your hand, open your fist, open and close your mouth, breath deeply, wink at somebody at any time is done by the voluntary muscles. The involuntary muscles are the heart muscles that pump all through our life times, stomach and lung muscles that help us digest and breath on a regular basis.

There are three different kinds of muscles in the human body. They are skeletal muscles, smooth muscles, and cardiac muscles. The skeletal muscles are attached to bones, hence called skeletal bones. They work in pairs to control bone movement. For example one muscle moves the bone to the right and the other muscle moves it back to the left. The skeletal muscles are voluntary, the total number of skeletal muscles are more than 650. The dynamics of your brain is to create the thought process to move a particular muscle or muscle group and sent to the nervous system. Our nervous system informs the appropriate muscle or muscle groups to move or contract.

Smooth muscles occur in lungs, digestive system, bladder (to name a few). As part of the various organs, the functions of breathing, digesting of food, waste elimination are done. The brain and the nervous system automatically controls them.

Heart or cardiac muscles are in the heart only, these have characteristics of both skeletal and smooth muscles. They stretch like smooth muscles and contract like skeletal muscles. Thank God! Since these muscles are involuntary, we do not need to worry daily about our heart beats! All the muscle types are held together by connective tissue.

The energy the muscles need to stretch and contract are supplied by the arterial capillaries of the blood. Capillaries are the tiny blood vessels that supplies the connective tissues to deliver the oxygen and requisite nutrients to these muscles. Keep them healthy always.

Common muscle issues exist. They are sprains, strains and tendonitis. A sprain occurs when the ligament tissue between the bones of the joints is stretched or torn, usually, as a result of a fall or twist. A strain is a torn or stretched muscle of a tendon. Tendons connect muscle to the bones. Tendonitis is simply the inflammation of the tendon, caused by repetitive motion, rheumatoid arthritis.