Muscular System Answers.pdf

Name: ________________________ 24 Curriculum Connection B2.1, B2.2 What is the Muscular System? The muscular system is all the muscles in our body that work to move us. If your body has moved, the muscular system was responsible for that movement. For example, the blinking of one eye uses multiple m...

Name: ________________________ 24 Curriculum Connection B2.1, B2.2 What is the Muscular System? The muscular system is all the muscles in our body that work to move us. If your body has moved, the muscular system was responsible for that movement. For example, the blinking of one eye uses multiple muscles, including the 4 muscles in your eyelid. To smile, your body will use about 43 different muscles! In total, the muscular system has about 600 muscles. There are 3 types of muscles – skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. Skeletal Muscles – muscles that attach to bones. These muscles pull on bones to allow us to move. Tendons attach muscles to bones. Smooth Muscles – muscles we cannot control. These muscles work without us even knowing. For example, our intestines have muscles that move food. Cardiac Muscle – our heart is a muscle known as the cardiac muscle How Do Muscles Work? Our muscular system works together with our skeletal system and our nervous system. Our skeletal muscles connected to our bones move us where we want to go. But where do we want to go? Our nervous system works with our muscular system to tell our muscles where to move. When our brain makes a decision to move, it sends a signal to the nerves in our muscles. Our muscles will then contract, meaning they will tighten causing movement. This happens when we pick something up or when we take a step. Muscle contraction is followed by muscle relaxation, when contracted muscles return back to their normal state. Exercising When we exercise, we make our muscles bigger and stronger by performing many muscle contractions. When a skeletal muscle is worked hard after many contractions, it may have micro-tears. These tiny tears are a good thing, as our body will use the nutrients from our digestive system to grow bigger and stronger muscles. If you have ever had sore muscles, you have experienced these micro-tears. Hopefully afterwards, you ate some healthy foods that your body could get nutrients from. That way, your blood could send nutrients to these tears to allow them to grow back stronger. © Super Simple Sheets supersimplesheets.com