Muscle is a type of soft tissue found in all animals. Muscle cells contain actin and myosin protein filaments that slide past one another, causing a contraction that changes the cell’s length and shape. Muscles work to generate force and motion. Muscle is also vital to everyone’s survival because we rely on our muscles in every activity in our day-to-day life tasks. The heart is the strongest muscle in our bodies, and it is constantly trying to get stronger. Muscles allow us to move and exercise. Our muscle strength is determined by how much we use them.
- When we take a step, we use up to 200 different muscles.
- Only a few muscles have the ability to sleep during the REM sleep; these are the eyes muscles, the diaphragm muscles for respiration, and the auditory muscles.
- The human body consists of over 600 muscles which constitute 40% of our body weight. However, some studies also suggest that there are over 840 muscles present in our body.
- All muscles are made of a kind of elastic tissue, which is made up of special cells known as muscle fibers. Each muscle consists of thousands, or tens of thousands, of small musculus fibers. Each muscle fiber is about 40 millimeters long.
- There are three major types of muscles: the smooth muscles, Cardiac muscles, and skeletal muscles.
- The skeletal muscles attach to the bones and give strength to the bones.
- Our muscles often work in pairs so that they can pull in different or opposite directions.
- The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in our body. It is large and powerful because it has the job of keeping the trunk of the body in an erect posture. It is the chief antigravity muscle that aids in walking upstairs.
- The stapedius is the smallest muscle in our body and measures only 6 mm in length. It is located in the inner year.
- The masseter is the strongest muscle in our body and is present in the jaw. The muscles can close teeth with force as great as 55 pounds (25 kilograms) on the incisors or 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) on the molars.
- The hardest working muscle in our entire body is the heart
- The muscles of the eye move more than 100000 times a day and thus are the busiest muscles in our body.
- Frowning needs more muscles than it needs to smile.
- The smile is the most frequently used facial expression. A smile can use anywhere from a pair of 5 to 53 facial muscles.
- We use 72 different muscles to produce speech.
- Our body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when we standstill.
- There is a total of nine muscles in our ear.
- The shoulder blade is connected to the body by 15 different muscles and is not attached to a single bone.
- It takes three muscles to blink. Those muscles are the orbicularis oculi, the levator palpebrae, and the Muller’s muscle which is also known as the superior tarsal muscle. These muscles are also used for winking and squinting.
- The heat produced in our body mainly comes from our muscle’s contraction.
- Muscles usually work in pairs. They can only pull and not push.
- It is the muscles that make a wall of many organs like the heart, blood vessels, alimentary canal, uterus, and urinary bladder.
