Types of muscles
General functions of muscles
Movement: production movement of the body as a whole (locomotion) or its parts
Thermogenesis: Heat production
Posture: maintains body position through partial contractions
Skeletal muscle function
Excitability: “irritability” the ability to respond to regulatory mechanism, such as a nerve signal
Contractibility: the ability to contract or shorten “pulling the ends together”
Extensibility: the ability to extend or stretch
Muscles are named according to what?
Location
Function
Shape
Direction of fibers
Number of heads
Points of attachment
Size of muscle
Skeletal muscle structure
Parallel
Convergent
Fascicles that radiate out form a small to a wider point of attachment
Pennate
Fusiform
Have fascicles that may be close to parallel in the center or “belly”, of the muscle but converge to a tendon at one or both ends
Spiral
Have fibers that twist between their points of attachment
Circular
“Orbicular”/“sphincters”
Circle body tubes or openings
Origin
The point of attachment that odes not move when the muscle contracts
Insertion
Skeletal muscles almost always do what
Almost always act in groups rather than singly
Agonist
“Prime mover”
- used to describe a muscle that directly performs a specific movement
Antagonist
Synergists
Fixator muscles
Myocytes
Muscle cells
Often called muscle fibers
These cells are long, thin, thread-like shaped
Multi mucleated
Sarcolemma
Plasma membrane of a muscle fiber
Sarcoplasm
The cytoplasm of a muscle fiber
Sarcoplasmic reticulum
T-tubules
Triad