THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM

The muscles we have in our body are divided into three classes of muscles: cardiac,
smooth, and skeletal. Usually, when we think of muscular system, we often only remember
the skeletal muscles because they makeup what is recognized as the muscular system.
Functions of muscle tissue
Through sustained contraction or alternating contraction and relaxation, muscle tissue has
three key functions: producing motion, providing stabilization, and generating heat.
1. Motion: Motion is obvious in movements such as walking and running, and in
localized movements, such as grasping a pencil or nodding the head.These
movements rely on the integrated functioning of bones, joints, and skeletal muscles.
2. Stabilizing body positions and regulating the volume of cavities in the body:
Besides producing movements, skeletal muscle contractions maintain the body in stable
positions, such as standing or sitting. Postural muscles display sustained contractions
when a person is awake, for example, partially contracted neck muscles hold the head
upright. In addition, the volumes of the body cavities are regulated through the
contractions of skeletal muscles. For example muscles of respiration regulate the
volume of the thoracic cavity during the process of breathing.
3. Thermo g e n e s i s (generation of heat). As s k e l e t a l muscle contracts to
perform work, a by-product is heat. Much of the heat released by muscle is used to
maintain normal body temperature. Muscle contractions are thought to generate as much
as 85% of all body heat.
Physiologic Characteristics of muscle tissue
Muscle tissue has four principal characteristics that enable it to carry out its functions
and thus contribute to homeostasis.
1. Excitability (irritability), a property of both muscle and nerve cells (neurons), is the
ability to respond to certain stimuli by producing electrical signal called action potentials
(impulses). For example, the stimuli that trigger action potentials are chemicals-
neurotransmitters, released by neurons, hormones distributed by the blood.
2. Contractility is the ability of muscle tissue to shorten and thicken (contract), thus
generating force to do work. Muscles contract in response to one or more muscle action
potentials.
3. Extensibility means that the muscle can be extended (stretched) without damaging
the tissue. Most skeletal muscles are arranged in opposing pairs. While one is
contracting, the other not only relaxed but also usually is being stretched.
4. Elasticity means that muscle tissue tends to return to its original shape after
contraction or extension.

Muscle Types
Cardiac
 Cardiac muscles are involuntary and found only in the heart. They are controlled by the
lower section of the brain called the medulla oblungata, which controls involuntary action
throughout your body.It is responsible for circulating blood throughout the body.it has its
own pace maker for rhythmic beating .
The heart has 3 layers.the middle layer ,myocardium is responsible for hearts punping
action.
Cardiac muscle found only in myocardium contracts in response to signals from cardiac
conducting system to make the heart beat
Cardiac muscles is made from cells called the cardiocytes.
Cardiac muscle :-pumps blood throughout the body
-contains more mitochondria than skeletal muscle cells
Your heart cells come in long strips, each containing a single nucleus ,one of the key
factors in determining which of the three classes any particular muscle is Located at the
walls of the heart ,its main function is to propel blood into circulation. Contraction of the
cardiac tissue is caused by an impulse sent from the medulla oblongata.
Smooth muscles
Your smooth muscles, like your cardiovascular muscles, are involuntary. It is involuntary
because it worksautomatically ratherthan under conscious contriol
They make up your internal organs, such as your stomach ,airways, alimentary canal,blood
vessels and all the others, except your heart. Unlike cardio vascular muscles, smooth
muscles are generally spherical, as most other human cells are, and each contains one
nucleus.
Skeletal
 The skeletal muscles are the only voluntary muscles of your body, and make up what we
call the muscular system. skeletal muscles are connected to the skeleton either to bone or
connective tissue e.g. ligaments
 They are all the muscles that move your bones and show external movement.
 Unlike either of the other two classes, skeletal muscles contain multiple nuclei because
of its large size, being in strips up to a couple of feet long.
NOTE:
Differences between each muscle are recognized by location, function, structure, and the
way they are contracted.
 Skeletal muscles can be broken down into groups based upon the type of movement they
portray .
 The movement of the muscle is based upon the type of joint upon which the muscle
works. Skeletal muscles can't expand or make themselves longer, but they can contract, or
make themselves shorter, so they generally work in pairs.
 One contracts, and in doing so stretches the other, and reverses its effects on the joint.
 For example, when you contract your major arm muscle, which is called the bicep ,in
return the lower arm muscle, called the triceps ,extends.
 So, as you contract one muscle the other one extends.
 These effects can be broken down into groups of their own: flexors, extensors,
adductors, and abductors.  Flexors and extensors become plantar flexors and dorsiflexors,
respectively, when located within either the wrist or ankle joint
Flexors
 Flexors bend at the joint, decreasing the interior angle of the joint
 Humorous, or bicep, is a flexor of the elbow joint, bringing the fist towards the shoulder.
 If a flexor appears in either the wrist or ankle joints ,it becomes a plantarflexor
Extendors
 Opposites of flexors, extensors unbend at the joint, increasing the interior angle
 The humorous, or tricep, is an extensor of the elbow joint, taking the fist farther away
from the shoulder.
 If an extensor is found in the wrist or ankle joints, it becomes adosiflexor
Abductors
 Abductors take way from the body, like lifting the arm to the side.
 Abd-means to take away, like abduct and abdicate. Spreading out your fingers uses
abductors, because you are taking away your fingers from an imaginary line running down
your arm.
Adductors
 Adductors, the opposites of abductors, move toward the body.
 Add-means to increase or include.
 By lowing an arm raised to the side, or moving your fingers together while keeping them
straight, your muscles are adducting.
Tendons and Ligaments
 As fascinating as they are, muscles alone can't do the job.
 At every joint, tendons and ligaments also help out.
 Muscles wouldn't be very useful alone because they don't directly connect to the bone, so
even if they contract, they wouldn't be moving anything.
 Instead, muscles are connected to tendons, when they are connected to the bones.
 When the muscles contract, they pull on the tendons, which in turn pull on the muscles,
and that causes movement.
 But without ligaments, that movement wouldn't be too useful because it would not be
directed movement.
  Without ligaments, instead of bones bending or rotating about each other when muscles
contract, they would slide by each other.
 Ligaments are what hold the bones together. They connect at the ends of muscles and
keep them from slipping and sliding, and force them to bend

Major Skeletal Muscles

 The muscular body is divided into ten different areas where muscles can be found: facial
,neck, shoulder, arm ,forearm ,thorax, abdomen, hip ,pelvis/thigh ,leg.
Facial
 In the facial area one finds all the muscles which move the face.
 Orbicularis oculi-sound is the two muscles that move the eye are.
 Frontalis-sound and Temporalis-sound are the two muscles which move the forehead
and sides of your head.
 Zygomaticus-sound and Masseter-sound are the two muscles that work in conjunction to
move your jaw and upper lip area.
 Orbicularis oris -sound is the muscle which moves your lips.
Neck
 The neck area is almost entirely moved by the sternohyoid-sound and
Sternocleidomastoid-sound.
 These muscles allow the neck to move your head left and right.
 They work with the platysma muscle to control how far you can move your head left and
right.
 What allows your head to move up and down is the trapezius-sound.
 The trapezius is so large that it extends down to the shoulder and thorax area.
 The trapezius is a good example of how some muscles are named by their shape.
 The trapezius looks just like a trapezoid.
Shoulder
 A group of muscles all work together to move the whole shoulder area.
 This group takes into account the trapezius-sound, deltoid-sound, infraspinatus-sound,
teres major sound ,and the rhomboid major-sound.
 The rhomboid major is called so because it’s shaped like the geometric shape of a
rhombus.
 Along with the help of the ball and socket joint-hyperlink in your shoulder, these group
of muscles allow your arm to throw a softball, pick things over your head, and give your
arms a good stretch early in the morning.
Arm
 Most known amongst teenage weight lifters is the arm area.
 The famous bicep brachii-sound is the muscle that allows you to bring your forearm close
to your body and form a huge ball of muscle which catches a lot of attention amongst
weight lifters.
 The tricep brachii-sound and brachialis-sound are the two other muscles located in the
arm region. These muscles allow a person to do push-ups.
Forearm
 A majority of the muscle in the forearm help control apart of the arm.
 Amongst these is the Berachiodialis major-sound ,palmaris longus- sound, and Flexor
carpiradialis sound.
 The name of the flexor carpiradialis is a good example of how muscles are named by
their function and location.
 This muscle is named carpi because of the bones that it helps move ,the carples .Also,
the name of radialisis made by the bone that it’s attached to, the radius.
Thorax
 The thorax consists of these muscles which helps in carrying your head, arms,
stomach ,and any other upper body areas.
 These muscles are the trapezius-sound and latissimusdorsi-sound.
 Usually ,the majority of the muscles of the thorax can be damaged easily is one dosenot
stretch before exercise ,or lifts a heavy load.
Abdomen
 The abdominal area consists of the muscle that allows you to bend down and move your
waist from side to side.
 The internal oblique-sound and external oblique-sound are the muscles that move your
body from left to right.
 The Transversus abdominus-sound and Rectus abdominus-sound, along with the
trapezius-sound and latissimus dorsi-sound allow you to bend down and grab objects.
Hip
 Only two muscles make up the hip area .These are the gluteus medius-sound and gluteus
maximus sound.
 Probably the laziest muscles in the whole system the gluteus set of muscles are used only
to sit down
Pelvis/Thigh
 An overlapping of muscles makes this area so firm.

 The pelvis area is usually referred to as the upper part of the leg.
 Muscles like the pectineus-sound and iliopsoas-sound, which help support the upper leg
area ,are known as pelvic muscles.

 Thigh muscles are very rich in capillaries and support the whole body.

 The upper thigh muscles are: abductorlongus- sound, Gracilis- sound ,Sartorius-sound, and
Tensor fasciaelatea.

 The lower thigh muscles are: rectus femoris-sound, vastus lateralis -sound and medialis-sound.

 Located in the back of your leg is the hamstrings-sound.

 These muscles help you run, jump, and walk

Leg
 Helps the thigh region to support the body.

 These muscles like the Gastrocnemius-sound, soleus-sound, poreniuslongus-sound, and Tibialis

anterior-sound absorb the impact when one walks and runs.

 They also give beter coordination for moving.

 The thigh regions trust the body forward while the leg region coordinates where it should be
thrusted and where it should stand.

Muscle structure
Muscle is a group of muscle tissues which contract together to produce force.
Muscle consists of fibres of muscles cells surrounded by protective tissue, bundled
together. Muscle uses ATP to contract and shorten, producing force on objects it is
connected with.
Connective Tissue Component

A skeletal muscle is an organ composed mainly of striated muscle cells and connective tissue.
Each skeletal muscle has two parts; the connective tissue sheath that extend to form specialized
structures that aid in attaching the muscle to bone and the fleshy part the belly or gaster. The
extended specialized structure may take the form of a cord, called a tendon; alternatively, a broad
sheet called an aponeurosis may attach muscles to bones or to other muscles, as in the abdomen
or across the top of the skull. A connective tissue sheath called facia surrounds and separates
muscles. Connective tissue also extends into the muscle and divides it into numerous muscle
bundles (fascicles). There are three connective tissue components that cover a skeletal muscle
tissue. These are:

1. Epimysium -a connective tissue sheath that surrounds and separates muscle.

2. Perimysium -a connective tissue that surrounds and holds fascicles together.

3. Endomysium -a connective t i s s u e that s u r r o u n d s e ac h muscle fibre.

B. Microscopic structures

The muscle bundles are composed of many elongated muscle cells called muscle fibres. Each
muscle fibre is a cylindrical cell containing several nuclei located immediately beneath the cell
membrane (sarcolemma). The cytoplasm of each muscle fibre (sarcoplasm) is filled with
myofibrils. Each myofibril is a thread-like structure that extends from one end of the muscle
fibre to the other. Myofibrils consist of two major kinds of protein fibres: actins or thin
myofilaments, and myosin or thick myofilaments.

The actins and myosin myofilaments form highly ordered units called sarcomeres, which are
joined end-to-end to form the myofibrils. Sarcomere is a structural and functional unit of muscle
tissue. The ends of a sarcomere are a network of protein fibres, which form the Z-lines when the
sarcomere is viewed from side. The Z-lines form an attachment site for actins
myofilaments. The arrangement of the actin and myosin myofilaments in a sarcomere gives the
myofibril a banded appearance because the myofibril appears darker where the actin and myosin
myofilaments overlap. The alternating light (I-band) and dark (A-band) areas of the sarcomers are
responsible for striation (banding pattern) seen in skeletal muscle cells observed through the
microscope. The sarcolemma of a muscle fibre forms blind-ended sacs or T-tubules which
penetrate the cell and lie in the spaces between the myofibrils. The T-tubules contain interstitial
fluid and do not open into the interior of the muscle fibre. Within the sarcoplasm of the
muscle fibre there is an extensive network of branching and anastomosing channels, which
forms the sarcoplasmic reticulum (this structure is a modified endoplasmic reticulum). The
channels of the sarcoplasmic reticulum lay in close contact around the ends of T-tubules, and
contain stores of calcium.

Energy Requirements for Muscle Contraction

Contraction of skeletal muscle requires adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The ATP releases energy
when it breaks down to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and a phosphate (P), some of the energy is
used to move the cross bridges and some of the energy is released as heat.

ATP→ADP + P + Energy (for crossbridge movement) + Heat

The ATP required for muscle contraction is produced primarily in numerous mitochondria located
with in the muscle fibres. Because ATP is a very short-lived molecule and rapidly degenerates to
the more stable ADP, it is necessary for muscle cells to constantly produce ATP.

ATP is produced by anaerobic or aerobic respiration. Anaerobic respiration, which occurs in the
absence of oxygen, results in the breakdown of glucose to yield ATP and lactic acid. Aerobic
respiration requires oxygen and breaks down glucose to produce ATP, carbon dioxide, and
water. Compared with anaerobic respiration, aerobic respiration is much more efficient. The
breakdown of glucose molecule by aerobic respiration theoretically can produce 19 times as
much ATP as is produced by anaerobic respiration. In addition, aerobic respiration can utilize a
greater variety of nutrient molecules to produce ATP than can anaerobic respiration. For example,
aerobic respiration can use fatty acids to generate ATP. Although anaerobic respiration is less
efficient than aerobic respiration, it can produce ATP when lack of oxygen limits aerobic
respiration. By utilizing many glucose molecules, anaerobic respiration can rapidly produce much
ATP, but only for a short period.

Resting muscles or muscles undergoing long-term exercise such as a long-distance

bicycling on level ground depend primarily on aerobic respiration for ATP synthesis. Although
some glucose is used as an energy source, fatty acids are a more important energy source
during sustained exercise as well as during resting conditions. On the other hand, during
intense exercise such as riding a bicycle up a steep hill, anaerobic respiration provides
enough ATP to support intense muscle Contractions for approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
Anaerobic respiration is ultimately limited by depletion of glucose and a build up of lactic acid
within the muscle fibre. Lactic acid can also irritate muscle fibres, causing short-term muscle pain.
Muscle pain that lasts for a couple of days following exercise, however, results from damage to
connective tissue and muscle fibres within the muscle.

Muscle fatigue results when ATP is used during muscle contraction faster than it can be produced
in the muscle cells and lactic acid builds up faster than it can be removed. As a consequence,
ATP levels are too low to sustain crossbridge movement and the contractions become weaker and
weaker. For most of us, however, complete muscle fatigue is rarely the reason we stop exercising.
Instead, we stop because of psychological fatigue, the feeling that the muscles have tired. A
burst of activity in a tired athlete as a result of encouragement from spectators is an example of
how psychological fatigue can be overcome.

After intense exercise, the respiration rate remains elevated for a period. Even though oxygen
is not needed for anaerobic production of ATP molecules for contraction, oxygen is needed to
convert the lactic acid produced by anaerobic respiration back to glucose. The increased amount
of oxygen needed in chemical reactions to convert lactic acid to glucose is the oxygen debt. After
the oxygen debt is paid, respiration rate returns to normal.

Types of muscle contraction

Muscle contractions are classified as either isotonic or isometric. In isotonic contractions, the
amount of tension produced by the muscle is constant during contraction, but the length of the
muscle changes; for example, movement of the fingers to make fist.

In isometric contractions, the length of the muscle does not change, but the amount of
tension increases during the contraction process. Clenching the fist harder and harder is an
example. Most movements are a combination of isometric and isotonic contractions. For
example, when shaking hands, the muscles shorten some distance (isotonic contractions) and the
degree of tension increases (isometric contractions).

Isometric contractions are also responsible for muscle tone, the constant tension produced by
muscles of the body for long periods. Muscle tone is responsible for posture; for example,
keeping the back and legs straight, the head held in upright position, and the abdomen from
bulging.

Muscle attachments

Most muscles extend from one bone to another and cross at least one movable joint. Muscle
contraction causes most body movements by pulling one of the bones towards the other
across the movable joint. Some muscles are not attached to bone at both ends. For example,
some facial muscles attach to the skin, which moves as the muscles contract.
.

The points of attachment of each muscle are its origin and insertion (Figure 6-3). At these
attachments’ points, the muscle is connected to the bone by a tendon. The origin is the most
stationary end of the muscle and the insertion is the end of the muscle attached to the bone
undergoing the greatest movement. Some muscles have more than one origin, but the
principle is the same−the origin act to anchor or hold the muscle so that the force of contraction
causes the insertion to move. For example, the biceps brachii causes the radius to move,
resulting in flexion of the forearm. The triceps brachii muscle has three origins; two on the
humerus and one on the scapula. The insertion of the triceps brachii is on the ulna and
contraction results in extension of the forearm

disorders of the muscular system

 bursitis
 carpal tunnel syndrome

Table 6-1. Head and neck muscles

Muscle Origin Insertion Action

Muscles of facial expression

Occipitofrontalis Occipital bone Skin of eye brow Elevates eye brows

orbicularis oculi Maxilla & frontal Skin around the Closes eye
eye
Orbicularis oris Maxilla &
Skin around the Closes lip
mandible
lips
Buccinator Mandible &
Corner of mouth Flattens cheeks
maxilla
Zygomaticus superioris Corrugator supercilli
muscles
Levator labii
Corner of mouth Elevates Maxilla Upper lip Elevates upper lip
corner of
mouth Frontal bone Skin of eye brow Lowers and draws
together eye brows
Depressor anguli oris Mandible Lower lip near Depresses corner
corner of mouth of
the mouth

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 Muscles of Temporal region Mandible Closes jaw
mastication on
Temporalis side of the skull
Massetor Zygomatich arch Mandible Closes jaw

Muscles that Occipital bone Scapula and Extends head

move the head and Clavicle and neck
rapezius vertebrae
Sternocleidomas Sternum & Mastoid process Rotates head
toid clavicle of temporal bone and flexes neck

Table 6-2. Trunk muscles

Muscle Origin Insertion Action

Muscles that move the vertebral column

Erector spinae Ilium, sacrum, Superior vertebrae Extend, abduct, and
vertebrae Ribs rotate vertebrae
Deep back Vertebrae Vertebrae Extend, abduct, and
muscles rotate vertebrae
Rectus abdominis Pubis Xiphoid process of Flexes vertebrae;
ste- compress abdomen
External rnum & lower ribs
abdominal Rib cage Iliac crest & facia Flexes & rotates
oblique of vertebral column;
rectus abdominis compress abdomen
Internal Iliac crest and Lower ribs and Flexes & rotates
abdominal vertebrae facia of vertebral column;
oblique rectus abdominis compress abdomen
Transversus Ribcage, Xiphoid process of Compress abdomen
abdominis vertebrae and sternum, facia of
iliac crest rectus,
abdominis and
pubis
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