machoman :D

muscles. macho right?

muscle is a general term for all contractile tissue. it is from the Latin word 'mus' meaning mouse. well, there are three types of muscles: skeletal, smooth and cardiac.

skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles that are attached to the bones and allows external movement for the body. they look striated or striped appearance of fibers. and there's a process that muscle uses broad sheets of connective tissue called aponeurosis. in movement, there's contraction [or shortening of muscle fibers] and relaxation. agonists or primary movers are muscles that cause movements. and in this muscle there's points of origin and insertion. point of origin is the end of the muscle that is attached to the stationary bone; while point of insertion is the muscle end that is attached to the moving bone. next on the line is the synergistic muscles which assists agonists. and antagonists are synergistic muscles that cause movement in the opposite direction.

muscles also have functional units. these are myofibrils that can be seen in each muscle fiber. sarcomeres are functional contractile units each fiber must possess. myofilaments are threadlike structures each sacromere unit has.

smooth muscles are found in organs except the heart. they have the ability expand or contract. an example of this muscle is the sphincters which are found in digestive system.

cardiac muscles form the walls of the heart. they are connected to each other by intercalated disks. and these do NOT regenerate after severe damage.

so... that's it. :)