The muscular system
Without muscles our bones could not move, our lungs could not breathe, and our heart would not beat – we would die!
Here is some information about the muscular system:
Not all muscles in your body are the same. Muscles are organized into three different groups. These are:
- Smooth muscles- The smooth muscles are muscles that we don’t have control of. They include muscles that surround organs including the stomach, lungs, and intestines. Because we cannot control them, they are called “involuntary muscles”
- Skeletal muscles- Skeletal muscles are muscles that are directly attached to bones. These muscles are responsible for all of the movement our body can accomplish. When most people think of muscles, they think of skeletal muscles.
- Cardiac muscles- Cardiac muscles are only found in one place in your body…your heart. This involuntary set of muscles make up the chambers of your heart. They pump all day and night transporting blood throughout the body.
Muscles are only able to contract or pull. Because our body has to move in many directions, most muscles are set up in pairs so that one muscle can pull a bone in one direction, and another muscle can pull the bone back the other way.
There are over 600 kinds of muscles that scientists have named. Some muscles are tiny – when we get goosebumps, we are actually seeing a tiny muscle contracting to raise a hair. The longest muscle is satorius muscle in your leg. The largest muscle in the body is Gluteus Maximus – the muscle you sit on!