Top 13 Weired Facts About Muscles | Sciencefacts
Muscles can only pull, not push. All muscles are made up of tiny fibers that contract (get shorter) in order to pull part of the body. Skeletal muscles often work in pairs that pull in opposite directions. In your arm, your biceps and triceps work as a pair. When the biceps contracts, your arm bends, and when the triceps contracts, it straightens.
MUSCLE POWER
Despite being made of the tiniest fibers, muscles are incredibly powerful lifting our limbs, powering our organs, and shunting blood around our body. Tough and strong, these soft tissues make up 40 percent of our body weight.
1. Skeletal muscles pull on the bones to make them move. There are around 650 in your body, arranged on top of the skeleton in overlapping layers, and they are the only muscles you can move voluntarily.
2. Water polo is one of the most physically demanding sports in the world. Players must pass and tackle without touching the bottom of the pool. Moving around in water is much harder than on land because your muscles have to work against water resistance.
3. There are no muscles in your fingers, only tendons moved by the skeletal muscles in your hands. Tendons are tough, cordlike bands of tissue that connect muscles to the bones they move.
4. The heart is made of cardiac muscle, which is similar to skeletal muscle, but never needs to rest. This tireless organ beats on average 60-100 times a minute every day of your life.
5. A third type of muscle, called smooth muscle, is found in the walls of hollow organs. It works automatically to carry out lots of vital tasks, from churning up food in the stomach, to pushing it through the intestines, and squeezing urine out of the bladder.
6. The six muscles that sit behind your eyeballs are the speediest muscles in the body.These can contract in just 0.01 second. During an hour of reading, they may make tiny movements up to 10,000 times.
7. Muscles can help you lift incredibly large amounts. Professional weightlifters can lift over 880 lb (400 kg) with their arms the weight of more than 5 grown men.
8. There are billions of tiny muscles in the human body. Every individual hair follicle has a microscopic muscle, which can contract to make the hair stand on end—the movement that gives you goosebumps.
9. Muscles make tiny noises when contracting. Most of these occur at extremely low frequencies of below 20 Hz—too low for humans to pick up, but loud enough to be heard by some animals.
10. The largest muscle in your body is the gluteus maximus—the muscle in your bum. It may not seem like it does a lot, but this muscle actually keeps your pelvis aligned, preventing you from falling over when you stand and walk.
11. Used to propel their bodies out of the water, the leg muscles are heavily exercised by waterpolo players. Exercising does not build new muscle you are born with all the muscle fibers you will ever have. However, it thickens the existing muscle, making you bigger and stronger.
12. Every time you move your leg to take a single step, you use 200 muscles—not just leg muscles, but also upper body muscles like your abdominals. The average person takes 10,000 steps a day, so that's a lot of muscle work.
13. Scientists have created high-tech artificial muscles using fibers from
fishing line and sewing thread.
2. Water polo is one of the most physically demanding sports in the world. Players must pass and tackle without touching the bottom of the pool. Moving around in water is much harder than on land because your muscles have to work against water resistance.
3. There are no muscles in your fingers, only tendons moved by the skeletal muscles in your hands. Tendons are tough, cordlike bands of tissue that connect muscles to the bones they move.
4. The heart is made of cardiac muscle, which is similar to skeletal muscle, but never needs to rest. This tireless organ beats on average 60-100 times a minute every day of your life.
5. A third type of muscle, called smooth muscle, is found in the walls of hollow organs. It works automatically to carry out lots of vital tasks, from churning up food in the stomach, to pushing it through the intestines, and squeezing urine out of the bladder.
6. The six muscles that sit behind your eyeballs are the speediest muscles in the body.These can contract in just 0.01 second. During an hour of reading, they may make tiny movements up to 10,000 times.
7. Muscles can help you lift incredibly large amounts. Professional weightlifters can lift over 880 lb (400 kg) with their arms the weight of more than 5 grown men.
8. There are billions of tiny muscles in the human body. Every individual hair follicle has a microscopic muscle, which can contract to make the hair stand on end—the movement that gives you goosebumps.
9. Muscles make tiny noises when contracting. Most of these occur at extremely low frequencies of below 20 Hz—too low for humans to pick up, but loud enough to be heard by some animals.
10. The largest muscle in your body is the gluteus maximus—the muscle in your bum. It may not seem like it does a lot, but this muscle actually keeps your pelvis aligned, preventing you from falling over when you stand and walk.
11. Used to propel their bodies out of the water, the leg muscles are heavily exercised by waterpolo players. Exercising does not build new muscle you are born with all the muscle fibers you will ever have. However, it thickens the existing muscle, making you bigger and stronger.
12. Every time you move your leg to take a single step, you use 200 muscles—not just leg muscles, but also upper body muscles like your abdominals. The average person takes 10,000 steps a day, so that's a lot of muscle work.
13. Scientists have created high-tech artificial muscles using fibers from
fishing line and sewing thread.
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