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Introduction To The Muscular System

The muscular system is composed of specialized muscle fibers that contract. Muscles produce movement by attaching to bones or internal organs and contracting. Nearly all movement results from muscle contraction with a few exceptions. Skeletal muscles work with joints and bones to produce both obvious movements like walking as well as subtle movements like facial expressions. Muscles also maintain posture, stabilize joints, and produce heat to regulate body temperature. Each skeletal muscle is made of bundled muscle fibers surrounded by connective tissue sheaths at different levels for support and protection. Muscles receive blood vessels and nerves to allow contraction in response to nerve signals.

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323 views

Introduction To The Muscular System

The muscular system is composed of specialized muscle fibers that contract. Muscles produce movement by attaching to bones or internal organs and contracting. Nearly all movement results from muscle contraction with a few exceptions. Skeletal muscles work with joints and bones to produce both obvious movements like walking as well as subtle movements like facial expressions. Muscles also maintain posture, stabilize joints, and produce heat to regulate body temperature. Each skeletal muscle is made of bundled muscle fibers surrounded by connective tissue sheaths at different levels for support and protection. Muscles receive blood vessels and nerves to allow contraction in response to nerve signals.

Uploaded by

JehannahBarat
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction to the Muscular System

The muscular system is composed of specialized cells called muscle fibers. Their predominant function is
contractibility. Muscles, attached to bones or internal organs and blood vessels, are responsible for
movement. Nearly all movement in the body is the result of muscle contraction. Exceptions to this are
the action of cilia, the flagellum on sperm cells, and amoeboid movement of some white blood cells.

The integrated action of joints, bones, and skeletal muscles produces obvious movements such as
walking and running. Skeletal muscles also produce more subtle movements that result in various facial
expressions, eye movements, and respiration.

In addition to movement, muscle contraction also fulfills some other important functions in the body,
such as posture, joint stability, and heat production. Posture, such as sitting and standing, is maintained
as a result of muscle contraction. The skeletal muscles are continually making fine adjustments that hold
the body in stationary positions. The tendons of many muscles extend over joints and in this way
contribute to joint stability. This is particularly evident in the knee and shoulder joints, where muscle
tendons are a major factor in stabilizing the joint. Heat production, to maintain body temperature, is an
important by-product of muscle metabolism. Nearly 85 percent of the heat produced in the body is the
result of muscle contraction.

Structure of Skeletal Muscle

A whole skeletal muscle is considered an organ of the muscular system. Each organ or muscle consists of
skeletal muscle tissue, connective tissue, nerve tissue, and blood or vascular tissue.

Skeletal muscles vary considerably in size, shape, and arrangement of fibers. They range from extremely
tiny strands such as the stapedium muscle of the middle ear to large masses such as the muscles of the
thigh. Some skeletal muscles are broad in shape and some narrow. In some muscles the fibers are
parallel to the long axis of the muscle; in some they converge to a narrow attachment; and in some they
are oblique.

Illustration of the structure of a skeletal muscle


Each skeletal muscle fiber is a single cylindrical muscle cell. An individual skeletal muscle may be made
up of hundreds, or even thousands, of muscle fibers bundled together and wrapped in a connective
tissue covering. Each muscle is surrounded by a connective tissue sheath called the epimysium. Fascia,
connective tissue outside the epimysium, surrounds and separates the muscles. Portions of the
epimysium project inward to divide the muscle into compartments. Each compartment contains a
bundle of muscle fibers. Each bundle of muscle fiber is called a fasciculus and is surrounded by a layer of
connective tissue called the perimysium. Within the fasciculus, each individual muscle cell, called a
muscle fiber, is surrounded by connective tissue called the endomysium.

Skeletal muscle cells (fibers), like other body cells, are soft and fragile. The connective tissue covering
furnish support and protection for the delicate cells and allow them to withstand the forces of
contraction. The coverings also provide pathways for the passage of blood vessels and nerves.

Commonly, the epimysium, perimysium, and endomysium extend beyond the fleshy part of the muscle,
the belly or gaster, to form a thick ropelike tendon or a broad, flat sheet-like aponeurosis. The tendon
and aponeurosis form indirect attachments from muscles to the periosteum of bones or to the
connective tissue of other muscles. Typically a muscle spans a joint and is attached to bones by tendons
at both ends. One of the bones remains relatively fixed or stable while the other end moves as a result
of muscle contraction.

Skeletal muscles have an abundant supply of blood vessels and nerves. This is directly related to the
primary function of skeletal muscle, contraction. Before a skeletal muscle fiber can contract, it has to
receive an impulse from a nerve cell. Generally, an artery and at least one vein accompany each nerve
that penetrates the epimysium of a skeletal muscle. Branches of the nerve and blood vessels follow the
connective tissue components of the muscle of a nerve cell and with one or more minute blood vessels
called capillaries.

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