Basic stuff

Your Muscular System helps you get your groove on by providing movement and mobility to your limbs (quick, name a limb!). Muscles also control the movement of materials through some organs, such as food through the stomach and intestine, and blood around the heart and circulatory system.

There are simply too many muscles in your body to name. Of these, you have “voluntary” muscles which are the ones those you choose to use, like when you swing a bat at an oncoming pitch, or not. These are your skeletal muscles. 

You also have “involuntary” muscles (those you don’t choose to use, they work on their own like the muscles that control your breathing and the movement of your iris in your eyeball). The muscles that control the heart are called cardiac muscles (called myocardium).

Some muscles you can exercise (like your biceps), others you can’t (like the muscles in your ear). Exercising (using) the ones you can is essential for good health. Muscles will atrophy (meaning, get smaller) when unused. Strong muscles help to stabilize the bones and joints in you body, however muscles that are overly big may limit your flexibility, leaving you more susceptible to injury. Thus both building and stretching your muscles is important for proper muscle health. (And don’t forget, muscle growth requires proper nutrients. You can’t build a strong house with weak materials… chips and chocolate just don’t provide what your muscles need.)   

You can injure your skeletal muscles through exercise or any event that causes you to move quickly. Your muscles can be naturally sore after a hard workout, but if you feel sharp pain when you move, you may have torn a muscle. Always seek professional help if you are worried that you may have injured yourself. Muscles need rest to repair.