Muscle Tissue Functions

The skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle tissues perform several important functions in our bodies:

Movement

• External movement: Skeletal muscles are attached to bones and stretches over joints to make the skeleton move as they contract. Others allow us to express our emotions through facial expressions.

• Internal movement: Smooth and skeletal muscle tissue is responsible for "hidden movement", including breathing, digestion, circulation of blood, urination and defecation.

Stability

• Skeletal muscles maintain our posture and prevent unwanted movements.

Sphincter control

• Sphincters of both skeletal (voluntary) and smooth (involuntary) muscle tissue control our body openings and passage of food and liquids.

Muscular thermoregulation

• In rest, contractions of skeletal muscles produce up to 30% of the body heat. During exercise, the heat production increase up to 40x forty times as much.

• Smooth muscle is found in the wall of the arteries that supply blood to the skin. When these arteries relax, more blood flow to the skin which increases heat loss. When the arteries contract, blood flow to the skin decreases and less heat is lost from the body.

Glycemic control

• Skeletal muscles stabilize blood sugar levels by absorbing glucose and store it as glycogen. Up to 500 g grams of glycogen can be stored in the skeletal muscles and the glycogen is converted to energy for the muscle cells, when needed.